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Infant   Baptism. 


INFANT    BAPTISM 


ORDINANCE   OF   THE   GOSPEL 


By  Key.  JOTHAM   SEWALL. 


ArPEOYED  BY  THE   COMMITTEE  OF  PUBLICATION. 


BOSTON: 

MASSACHUSETTS    SABBATH    SCHOOL    SOCIETY, 
Depository  Xo.  13  CoRyniLL. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860,  by  the 

Massachusetts  Sabbath  School  Society, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE  : 

Allen  and  Farnham,  Printers, 


Note.  —  The  following  essay  is  the  substance  of 
four  sermons  prepared  and  preached  to  the  people  of 
my  present  charge,  and  also  to  a  neighboring  church. 
Some  of  the  hearers  expressed  a  wish  that  they 
should  be  given  to  the  public  through  the  press ;  and 
I  have  been  disposed  to  comply  "with  this  wish, 
especially  as  some  points  connected  with  the  subject, 
which  tend  to  illustrate  it,  are  not  presented  in  other 
treatises  of  the  kind.  And  should  this  humble  effort 
be  the  means  of  confirming  the  faith  of  any  of  the 
people  of  God  in  an  important  truth,  and  of  stimulat- 
ing them  to  a  more  faithful  discharge  of  parental 
duties,  the  labor  involved  will  be  abundantly  repaid. 

J.  SEWALL. 

North  Granville,  N.  Y.,  March  28, 1859. 


%■  <^Z'"  ^/^fy 


CONTENTS 


CHAP  TEE  I. 

Church  defined.  —  Jewish  church  formed.  —  That  church  in 
the  nation,  but  seldom  embraced  the  whole.  —  The 
Christian  church  a  continuation  of  the  Jewish.  —  Proof.  — 
Language  of  prophecy.  —  The  work  which  Christ  came 
to  perform  for  that  church.  —  The  action  of  the  Apostolic 
Council.  —  The  reasoning  of  Paul  in  the  eleventh  of 
Eomans. 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  covenant  with  Abraham  constitutes  the  charter  of  the 
church's  rights.  —  This  charter  not  annulled  or  altered  at 
the  commencement  of  the  Christian  dispensation.  —  An- 
nulling the  ceremonial  law  did  not  affect  it.  —  Why  the 
covenant  with  Abraham  was  sealed.  —  A  seal  still  needful. 
—  Why  circumcision  was  abolished.  —  Baptism  substituted 
for  circumcision. 


VI  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    III. 


Objections.  —  Apostles  required  belief  before  baptism.  — 
Those  who  had  been  circumcised  required  to  be  baptized. 
—  Further  arguments.  —  Christ  and  his  apostles  taught 
and  practised  just  as  we  should  have  expected  if  children 
were  still  regarded  as  in  covenant  with  their  parents, 
and  just  as  we  should  not  have  expected  on  the  contrary 
supposition.  —  No  complaints  were  made  by  the  converted 
Jews.  —  Testimony  from  history. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Relation  of  baptized  children  to  the  church.  —  Utility  of 
Infant  Baptism.  —  It  tends  to  increase  the  faithfulness  of 
parents;  to  secure  to  children  the  prayers  and  counsels 
of  the  church ;  and  to  soothe  the  grief  occasioned  by 
their  death. 


INFANT    BAPTISM 


CHAPTER  I. 

CHURCH  DEFINED. — JEWISH  CHURCH  FORMED. — 
LIMITED.  —  JEWISH  AND  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH  THE 
SAME. 

Ax  important  feature  of  the  government 
of  God  is  placed  before  us  in  the  passage, 
"  The  mercy  of  the  Lord  is  from  everlast- 
ing to  everlasting  upon  them  that  fear  him, 
and  his  righteousness  unto  children's  chil- 
dren ;  to  such  as  keep  his  covenant,  and  to 
those  that  remember  his  commandments  to 
do  them."  (Psalms  103 :  17-18.)  On  the 
principle  here  expressed,  an  institution  was 
founded,  under  the  former  dispensation,  in 
1 


d  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

which,  by  a  religions  rite,  children  were 
consecrated  to  God.  And  the  same  prin- 
ciple, under  the  present,  involves  the  pro- 
priety and  duty  of  a  similar  consecration  in 
a  solemn  religious  ordinance. 

In  our  view.  Infant  Baptism  occupies  a 
place  in  the  system  of  God's  mercy  to  men, 
which  invests  it  with  unspeakable  impor- 
tance ;  and  the  best  good  of  the  church  and 
the  world,  we  think,  requires  that  it  be  un- 
derstood and  appreciated.  Christians,  we 
know,  who  are  equally  pious  and  conscien- 
tious in  their  opinions,  may  differ  on  this 
subject.  We  love  our  brethren  who  dissent 
from  us  respecting  it.  We  cheerfully  accord 
to  them  the  right  of  private  judgment.  It 
is  man's  inalienable  birthright,  —  an  un- 
questionable attribute  of  intelligent  exist- 
ence. And  should  these  pages  fall  under 
the  eye  of  any  such, —  or  any  who  have 
doubted  whether  infant  baptism  is  an  or- 


INFANT   BAI'TISM.  d 

dinance  of  the  gospel,  —  they  are  requested 
kindly  and  cordially  to  weigh  what  may 
now  be  offered.  Possibly,  there  are  views 
of  the  subject  which  they  have  not  taken, 
or  facts  and  arguments  possessing  greater 
importance  than  they  have  supposed.  Truth 
and  duty  lie  on  one  side  or  the  other  of  the 
question  now  to  be  considered ;  and  it  is 
certainly  important  to  understand  which. 

The  common  belief  of  those  who  reject 
the  doctrine  of  infant  baptism,  is,  that  the 
Christian  church  was  instituted  and  organ- 
ized at  the  commencement  of  the  present 
dispensation,  and  that,  hence,  all  its  ordi- 
nances are  to  be  found  in  positive  New  Tes- 
tament enactments.  If  they  are  right  in 
the  premises,  they  are  undoubtedly  right  in 
the  conclusion.  But,  in  our  view,  they  are 
wrong  in  the  premises,  and  hence  the  con- 
clusion is  erroneous. 

The  point,  then,  which  first  demands  our 


4  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

attention  is,  Is  the  Christian  church  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  Jewish  church  ?  This 
question  deserves  full  and  careful  attention ; 
for,  in  fact,  it  is  the  hinge  on  which  the 
whole  argument  turns. 

We  here  take  the  affirmative,  which  we 
think  capable  of  being  sustained  beyond 
successful  contradiction.  But  before  exhib- 
iting the  proofs,  it  is  proper  to  raise  and 
briefly  answer  the  question.  What  is  a 
church  ? 

We  answer :  A  church  is  -a  company  of 
persons  ivhom  God  takes  into  covenant  ivith 
himself  as  his  professed  servants  and  ivor- 
shippers,  securing  to  them  certain  j^rivileges 
and  blessings.  This  was  the  idea  under 
the  former  dispensation.  Such  a  commu- 
nity was  instituted  in  the  family  of  Abra- 
ham. He  was  required  to  separate  himself 
from  the  world,  and  be  a  worshipper  and 
servant  of  Jehovah.     E-eligious  institutions 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  O 

were  to  be  observed  by  him  and  his  house- 
hold, and  on  condition  of  obedience,  certain 
privileges  and  blessings  were  secured  to 
him,  some  of  which  were  temporal,  but  the 
more  important  of  which  were  spiritual. 
In  process  of  time,  a  code  of  laws  was 
given  to  his  descendants  for  the  regulation 
of  their  civil  and  religious  affairs ;  a  regu- 
lar priesthood  was  instituted ;  and  a  sys- 
tem of  religious  instruction,  and  more  of 
set  and  outward  formality  in  religious  or- 
dinances and  worship,  was  introduced. 
When  these  laws  were  propounded  to 
them  from  Sinai,  they  said,  "  All  that  the 
Lord  hath  said  will  we  do."  (Ex.  19 : 
8.)  To  render  their  engagement  to  be  the 
Lord's  still  more  formal  and  solemn,  Moses 
wrote  the  law  and  ordinances  which  they 
had  received  on  Sinai  in  a  book,  which  was 
termed  "  the  book  of  the  covenant."  This 
he  read  in  the  audience  of  the  people,  and 


6  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

they  replied,  "All  that  the  Lord  hath  spo- 
ken will  we  do,  and  be  obedient."  To  seal 
this  solemn  engagement,  "  Moses  took  the 
blood  [of  sacrifices  which  had  been  offered] 
and  sprinkled  it  on  the  people,  and  said, 
Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant  which  the 
Lord  hath  made  with  you  concerning 
all  these  words."  (Ex.  24:  5-8.)  Here 
was  a  solemn  engagement  by  which  the 
nation  became  the  professed  servants  and 
worshippers  of  Jehovah.  And,  toward  the 
close  of  Moses'  life,  when  a  strict  adherence 
to  the  divine  commands  and  ordinances 
was  enjoined,  he  said,  "  This  day  the  Lord 
thy  God  hath  commanded  thee  to  do 
these  statutes  and  judgments  ;  thou  shalt 
therefore  keep  and  do  them  with  all  thy 
heart  and  with  all  thy  soul."  He  then 
added,  "  Thou  hast  avouched  the  Lord  this 
day  to  be  thy  God,  and  to  walk  in  his  ways, 
and  to  keep  his  statutes,  and  his  command- 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  7 

ments,  and  his  judgments,  and  to  hearken 
unto  his  voice  ;  and  the  Lord  hath  avouched 
thee  this  day  to  be  his  peculiar  people,  as 
he  hath  promised  thee,  and  that  thou 
shouldest  keep  all  his  commandments." 
(Deut.  26  :  16-18.) 

These  transactions  constituted  the  people 
of  Israel  a  church,  —  an  organized  body  of 
professed  servants  and  worshippers  of  Je- 
hovah. And  so  they  are  styled  in  the  New 
Testament.  Stephen  says  of  Moses,  "  This 
is  he  that  was  in  the  church  in  the  wilder- 
ness." (Acts  7  :  38.)  And  Paul,  in  his  epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  quotes  David,  in  one  of 
the  Psalms,  as  saying,  "  I  will  declare  thy 
name  unto  my  brethren  ;  in  the  midst  of  tlie 
church  will  I  sing  praise  unto  thee."  (Hebr. 
2:  12.)  And  this  church,  collectively  and 
individually,  in  view  of  the  relation  into 
which  God  had  thus  taken  it  to  himself, 
was  required  to   be  holy,  —  as  really  so  as 


8  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

the  church  under  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion ;  —  "  Sanctify  yourselves,  therefore,  and 
be  ye  holy ;  for  I  am  the  Lord  your  God." 
—  "  Ye  shall  be  holy  ;  for  I  the  Lord  your 
God  am  holy."     (Lev.  20  :  7.  19  :  2.) 

But,  advancing  from  this  point  in  the 
history  of  Israel,  to  avoid  an  error,  we  must 
distinguish  between  the  church  and  the  na- 
tion. By  surrounding  communities,  the 
nation,  as  a  whole,  were  regarded  as  wor- 
shippers of  Jehovah  (just  as  Christian  na- 
tions are  regarded  by  heathen  as  made  up 
of  Christians)  ;  but  nothing  is  more  evident 
from  their  history,  than  that,  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  time,  most  of  them  were  not. 

From  the  transactions  of  God  with  Abra- 
ham, and  with  his  descendents  at  Sinai,  it  is 
obvious,  that  to  have  been  strictly  a  member 
of  the  Jewish  church,  one  must  not  only  have 
been  circumcised,  but  have  professed  to  be  a 
worshipper  of  God,  and  obedient  to  his  re- 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  Vl 

quirements.  If  an  Israelite  was  not  circum- 
cised, he  had  broken  God's  covenant,  —  that 
is,  was  not  in  covenant  with  God;  was  not  a 
member  of  the  church.  If,  having  been  cir- 
cumcised, he  became  an  idolater,  he  was  not  a 
worshipper  of  Jehovah,  and  hence  was  not  a 
member  of  the  church  ;  and  for  his  idolatry 
he  was  required  to  be  put  to  death.  In 
completing  their  national  and  religious  ar- 
rangements, certain  feasts  and  other  observ- 
ances were  instituted,  in  which  they  were 
to  profess  their  adherence  to  the  worship 
and  service  of  God.  (See  Ex.  34:  18-23, 
and  Deut.  26  :  1-15.)  Those  who  neglect- 
ed these  were  not  worshippers  of  Jehovah, 
and,  strictly  speaking,  were  not  members  of 
the  church ;  they  did  not  belong  to  the 
company  of  God's  professed  people.  True, 
the  civil  and  ecclesiastial  laws  and  institu- 
tions of  the  nation  were  interwoven  with 
each    other,    and    hence    the    church    and 


10  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

the  nation  were  intimately  connected,  — 
more  so,  probably,  than  in  any  civil 
community  since.  Still,  a  portion  of  the 
people  were  worshippers  of  Jehovah,  and 
cleaved  to  his  ordinances,  and  another 
portion  were  not.  The  former  were,  in  real- 
ity, the  church  ;  the  latter  did  not  strictly 
belong  to  it.  Hence  Paul  says,  "  They  are 
not  all  Israel  which  are  of  Israel ;  neither 
because  they  are  the  seed  of  Abraham,  are 
they  all  children."  (Rom.  9:  6,  7.)  The 
church  was  in  the  nation  ;  but  there  were 
only  a  few  points  in  its  history  in  which  it 
embraced  the  nation  generally.  A  few  re- 
marks hereafter  to  be  made,  will  further 
illustrate  this  point. 

Now  it  is  easy  to  conceive  that  the  same 
body,  regulated  by  the  same  general  princi- 
ples, but  with  ordinances  and  rites  accommo- 
dated to  materially  different  circumstances, 
may    exist    under    different    dispensations. 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  11 

This,  we  maintain,  is  the  fact.  The  church, 
under  both  dispensations,  is  the  same.  Tiiis 
is  evident, — 

1.  From  the  language  of  prophecij.  —  The 
predictions  which  I  shall  here  introduce,  are 
only  a  few  of  the  many  which  might  be 
cited. 

In  the  forty-fom'th  and  forty-fifth  chapters 
of  Isaiah,  the  restoration  of  the  Jews  from 
the  Babylonish  captivity  is  foretold,  and  the 
prediction  asserts,  "But  Israel  shall  be  saved 
in  the  Lord  with  an  everlasting  salvation  : 
ye  shall  not  be  ashamed  nor  confounded 
world  without  end."  (45:17.)  This  could 
not  apply  to  Israel  as  a  nation,  because,  as 
a  nation,  they  have  been  confounded  and 
ashamed.  It  must  therefore  apply  to  them 
as  a  charch  ;  that  is,  to  the  church  in  the 
nation.  And  it  is  a  solemn  assurance  that 
the  Israelitish  church  should  never  be  reject- 
ed or  destroyed.     In  the  fiftieth  and  fifty- 


12  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

first  chapters,  the  prophet  is  addressing  ex- 
plicitly the  people  of  Israel:  "  Where  is 
the  bill  of  your  mother's  divorcement."  — 
"Look  unto  Abraham  your  father,  and  to 
Sarah  that  bare  you."  Continuing  his  ad- 
dress, but  referring  undeniably  to  gospel 
times,  he  thus  commences  the  fifty-second 
chapter :  "  Awake,  awake,  put  on  thy 
strength,  O  Zion  ;  put  on  thy  beautiful  gar- 
ments, O  Jerusalem,  the  holy  city ;  for 
henceforth  there  shall  no  more  come  into 
thee  the  uncircumcised  and  the  unclean,"  — 
an  evident  prediction,  not  of  the  ceasing  or 
destruction  of  the  Jewish  church  when 
Messiah  came,  but  of  its  being  purified  and 
continued.  In  the  fifty-fourth  chapter,  per- 
sonifying Israel  as  a  desolate  woman,  the 
prophet  says,  "  For  the  Lord  hath  called 
thee  as  a  woman  forsaken  and  grieved  in 
spirit,  and  a  wife  of  youth,  when  thou  wast 
refused,  saith   thy  God.     For  a  small  mo- 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  13 

ment  I  have  forsaken  thee ;  but  in  great 
mercies  will  I  gather  thee.  In  a  little  wrath 
I  hid  my  face  from  thee  for  a  moment ;  but 
with  everlasting  kindness  will  I  have  mercy 
upon  thee,  saith  the  Lord,  thy  Redeemer." 
Mark  what  follows :  ''^For  this  is  as  the 
ivaters  of  Noah  unto  me ;  for  as  1  have 
siuorn  that  the  ivaters  of  Noah  should  no 
more  go  over  the  earth  ;  so  have  I  sworn  that 
I  will  not  be  ivroth  luith  thee  nor  rebuke  thee. 
For  the  mountains  shall  depart^  and  the  hills 
be  removed;  but  my  kindness  shall  not  depart 
from  thee^  neither  shall  the  covenant  of  my 
PEACE  BE  KEMOVED,  saith  the  Lord  that  hath 
mercy  on  theeP  God  was  wroth  with  the 
nation  and  rebuked  it.  He  utterly  rooted  it 
up,  and  destroyed  it,  and  scattered  its  re- 
maining elements  to  the  four  winds.  This 
assurance,  then,  applies  to  the  church.  For 
a  time,  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  God 
hid   his    face   from   it.      But    its   perpetu- 


14  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

ity  and  prosperity  he  here  secured  with  an 
oath.  In  the  fifty-sixth  chapter,  referring  to 
gospel  times,  the  prophet  says,  "  The  Lord 
God,  which  gathereth  the  outcasts  of  Israel, 
saith.  Yet  will  I  gather  others  to  him,  be- 
sides those  that  are  gathered  unto  him  ;  "  — 
a  plain  intimation  of  the  continuance  of  the 
Jewish  church,  and  that  the  Gentiles  were 
to  be  gathered  into  it.  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  fifty-ninth  chapter,  the  prophet  predicts 
the  coming  of  Christ :  "  The  Redeemer 
shall  come  to  Zion,  and  unto  them  that 
turn  from  transgression  in  Jacob."  He  then 
breaks  out,  "  Arise,  shine;  for  thy  light  is 
come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen 
upon  thee."  A  body  then  existing,  surely, 
was  addressed  ;  and  if  any  think  that  it  was 
the  nation  and  not  the  church,  let  them  no- 
tice what  follows :  "  But  the  Lord  shall  rise 
upon  thee^  and  his  glory  shall  be  seen  upon 
thee.     And  the  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thy 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  15 

light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of  thy 
rising.  Lift  up  thine  eyes  round  about  and 
see,  theij  come  to  thee ;  thy  sons  shall  come 
from  far,  and  thy  daughters  shall  be  nursed 
at  thy  side.  Then  thou  shalt  see,  and  flow 
together,  and  thine  heart  shall  be  enlarged ; 
because  the  abundance  of  the  sea  shall  be 
converted  unto  thee,  and  the  forces  of  the 
Gentiles  shall  come  unto  thee.  —  And  the 
sons  of  strangers  shall  build  thy  walls,  and 
their  kings  shall  minister  unto  thee :  for  in 
my  wrath  I  smote  thee,  but  in  my  favor 
have  I  had  mercy  on  thee.  —  Therefore  thy 
gates  shall  not  be  shut  day  or  night ;  that 
men  may  bring  unto  thee  the  forces  of 
the  Gentiles,  and  that  their  kings  may  be 
brought."  All  this,  as  it  cannot  apply  to 
the  nation,  must  apply  to  the  church.  And 
a  few  verses  onward  it  is  said,  "  Whereas 
thou  hast  been  forsaken  and  hated,  so  that 
no  man  went  through  thee,  I  ivill  make  thee 


16  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

an  eternal  excellency^  a  joy  of  many  gener- 
ations,^^ And  then  again ;  "  For  the  Lord 
shall  be  thine  everlasting  lights  and  the  days 
of  thy  mourning  shall  he  endedP  —  No  lan- 
guage could  more  plainly  teach  that  the 
Jewish  church  was  to  be  continued  under 
the  Christian  dispensation. 

Other  similar  predictions  could  be  collect- 
ed in  great  numbers  from  this  book ;  but  I  will 
introduce  only  one  more.  In  the  sixty-second 
chapter,  the  prophet,  looking  forward  to  the 
new  dispensation,  predicts  that  the  church 
of  God  should  be  called  by  a  new  name. 
And  then,  further  on,  he  says,  "  Go  through, 
go  through  the  gates,  prepare  ye  the  way  of 
the  people  [those,  who,  from  other  nations, 
were  to  come  into  the  church],  cast  up,  cast 
up  the  high  way ;  gather  out  the  stones ;  lift 
up  a  standard  for  the  people.  Behold  thy 
salvation  cometh  [He  who  should  save  the 
Jewish  church]  ;  behold  his  reward  is  with 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  17 

him,  and  his  work  before  him.  And  thou 
[the  Jewish  church  addressed  —  thoii]  shalt 
be  called,  Sought  out^  a  city  not  forsaken.^'' 

It  would  be  easy  to  add  other  similar 
predictions  from  Jeremiah  and  the  shorter 
prophets.  But  these  are  sufficient.  And 
they  certainly  show  that  the  Jewish  church 
was  not  rejected  at  the  coming  of  Christ 
and  a  new  one  formed. 

2.  The  same  appears /ro?;i  the  work  ivhich 
Christ  is  represented  as  performing'  for  that 
church.  The  natural  meaning  of  the  figure 
which  his  forerunner  applied  to  him,  when 
he  said,  "  Whose  fan  is  in  bis  hand,  and  he 
will  thoroughly  purge  his  floor,"  is,  the 
cleansing  of  the  Jewish  church ;  not  its  de- 
struction. Isaiah,  predicting  the  coming  of 
Christ  in  the  passage,  "  Unto  us  a  child  is 
born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given,"  represents  the 
Messiah  as  sitting  '^iipon  the  throne  of  David, 
and  upon  his  kingdom.^  to  order  it,  and  to 
2 


18  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

establish  it  with  judgment  and  with  justice 
from  henceforth  and  forever"  (Isa.  9:7), — 
meaning,  evidently,  that  he  was  to  defend 
and  perpetuate  the  Jewish  church.  In  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  the  Acts,  the  apostle 
James,  before  the  first  Christian  council, 
speaking  of  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles  into 
the  church,  and  referring  to  a  prophecy  of 
Amos,  says,  "  And  to  this  agree  the  words 
of  the  prophet ;  as  it  is  written.  After  this  I 
will  return,  and  I  ivill  build  again  the  taber- 
nacle of  David  which  is  fallen  down  ;  and  I 
will  build  again  the  ruins  thereof,  and  I  will 
set  it  up ;  that  the  residue  of  men  may  seek 
the  Lord,  and  all  the  Gentiles  upon  whom 
my  name  is  called,  saith  the  Lord  who 
doeth  these  things."  The  w^ork  which 
Christ  performed  by  extending  the  blessings 
of  salvation  to  the  Gentiles,  and  gathering 
them  into  the  church,  is  here  called,  a  build- 
ing again  of  the  tabernacle  of  David  —  a 


INFANT   BArTISM.  19 

figure  obviously  meaning  the  revivifying  and 
enlargement  of  the  Jewish  church  :  —  and  it 
seems  to  be  introduced  purposely  to  guard 
us  against  the  error  that  he  intended  to 
destroy  that  church  and  constitute  another. 
Said  Christ  to  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
"  Other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this 
fold;  them  also  must  I  bring ;  and  they  shall 
hear  my  voice,  and  there  shall  be  one  fold 
and  one  shepherd."  (John  10 :  16.)  Christ 
was  here  speaking  of  his  true  church,  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  had  existed  in  the  Jewish 
nation.  And  he  teaches  us  that  the  work 
which  he  came  to  perform,  was,  to  gather 
the  Gentiles  into  it.  Said  Paul  to  the 
Ephesian  Christians  :  '^  Wherefore  remem- 
ber, that  ye,  being  in  time  past  Gentiles  in 
the  flesh,  were  without  Christ,  being  aliens 
from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  and 
strangers  from  the  covenants  of  promise  :  — 
but  now,  in  Christ  Jesus,  ye  who  sometime 


20  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

were  far  off,  are  made  nigh  by  the  blood  of 
Christ."  The  obvious  import  of  this  passage 
is,  that  the  converts  at  Ephesus,  by  becom- 
ing Christians,  had  been  introduced  into  the 
Jewish  church,  and  had  become  partakers  of 
the  blessins^s  covenanted  to  them.  And  as 
the  result  of  his  reasoning  on  this  topic, 
within  a  few  verses,  the  apostle  comes  to 
this  conclusion :  "  Now  therefore  ye  are  no 
more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but  fellow- 
citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household 
of  God ;  and  are  built  upon  the  foundation 
of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ 
himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone " ;  — 
language  which  strongly  implies  the  unity 
of  the  church  under  both  dispensations. 
The  same  idea  was  evidently  before  the 
apostle's  mind,  when,  in  the  next  chapter,  he 
says,  "  That  the  Gentiles  should  be  fellow 
heirs,  and  of  the  same  body,  and  partakers 
of  his  promise  in    Christ  by  the   gospel." 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  21 

They  were  to  be  fellow  heirs  with  some 
previously  existing  body  to  which  God  had. 
covenanted  blessings  capable  of  being  in- 
herited, and  were  to  be  partakers  in  Christ 
by  the  gospel  of  the  promises  made  to  that 
body :  and  we  have  already  seen  with  whom 
the  covenant  constituting  a  church  was 
formed. 

The  work,  then,  which  Christ  came  to 
perform  for  the  Jewish  church  was,  to  purify 
and  enlarge  it,  and  bring  the  Gentiles 
into  it. 

3.  The  continuance  of  the  Jewish  church 
appears  from  the  action  of  the  apostolical 
council  at  Jerusalem^  as  recorded  in  the  fif- 
teenth chapter  of  the  Acts.  That  council  was 
called  to  decide  on  the  question  whether  the 
Gentile  converts  should  be  circumcised,  and 
keep  the  ritual  law.  After  free  discussion, 
in  which  there  was  some  variance  of  opinion, 
the  negative  of  the  question  was  unanimous- 
ly sustained. 


22  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

Now  what  was  the  argument  by  which 
that  conclusion  was  reached  ?  Was  it  that 
the  Jewish  church,  with  all  its  rites  and 
ceremonies,  had  been  abolished,  and  a  new 
church  established  in  its  stead  ?  If  Christ 
had  given  such  instructions,  his  disciples 
must  have  known  it.  And  here  was  the 
time,  and  this  the  place,  to  bring  out  the 
fact.  This  would  have  covered  the  whole 
ground,  and  settled  the  question  at  once. 
But  not  a  hint  of  the  kind  appears.  Not 
the  slightest  intimation  was  given  that  it 
was  the  will  of  Christ  that  the  old  church 
should  be  regarded  as  abolished,  and  a  new 
one  formed.  The  inference  is  plain  :  no 
such  thing  had  been  done.  Had  the  fact 
been  otherwise,  the  calling  of  that  council 
would  have  been  needless.  The  apostles 
might  and  would  have  said  to  the  churches 
they  formed,  "  You  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  old  establishment ;  it  is  all  done  away ; 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  23 

its  rites  and  observances  have  ceased  ;  and 
you  are  on  an  entirely  new  foundation."  All 
trouble  had  thus  been  spared. 

4.  The  continuance  of  the  Jewish  church 
iras  cvidenlhj  the  argument  of  Paul  in  the 
eleventh  of  Romans.  He  begins  with  the  in- 
quiry, "  Hath  God  cast  away  his  people  ?  " 
[the  Jews.]  This  he  answers  with  an  em- 
phatic negative  :  '*  God  forbid."  He  then 
proceeds  to  illustrate  the  truth  thus  an- 
nounced. Blindness  in  part  had  happened 
to  Israel ;  they  had  stumbled  and  fallen  : 
and,  in  consequence  of  this,  salvation  had 
come  to  the  Gentiles.  The  persons  thus  re- 
jected, he  represented  as  branches  broken  off 
from  an  olive-tree,  and  the  believing  Gentiles 
as  engrafted  in  their  stead.  Now  what  did 
he  mean  by  "  the  good  olive-tree  ?  "  Not, 
surely,  the  Jewish  nation ;  for,  becoming 
Christians  did  not  incorporate  the  Gentiles 
with  that.     The  church,  as  existing  under 


24  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

the  Jewish  dispensation,  was  evidently  in- 
tended. From  this,  the  pious  Jews  were 
not  broken  off:  and  among  them,  the  believ- 
ing Gentiles  were  grafted  in,  and  partook 
"  of  the  root  and  fatness  of  the  olive-tree  " — 
because  "  Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs  accord- 
ing to  the  promise,"  and  inheritors  of  the 
spiritual  privileges  and  blessings  covenanted 
to  him  and  his  posterity.  This  is  obviously 
the  meaning  of  the  passage. 

Should  any  pretend  that  the  good  olive- 
tree  is  Christ,  this  equally  proves  the  iden- 
tity of  the  church  under  both  dispensations, 
since  the  members  of  both  are  represented 
as  being  in  him.  The  truly  pious  are  never, 
in  any  age  of  the  world,  broken  off  from 
Christ.  It  is  only  those  who  are  nominally 
such.  And  those  whom  the  apostle  repre- 
sents as  being  broken  off  were  nominally  in 
Christ  by  being  nominally  in  the  church. 
But  being  nominally  in  Christ  now,  is  being 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  25 

nominally  in  the  cliiirch.  On  this  ground, 
then,  the  church  is  the  same  under  both  dis- 
pensations, since  the  same  thing  constituted 
membership  in  the  one  as  in  the  other. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  arguments  which 
prove  that  the  Christian  church  is  a  continua- 
tion of  the  Jewish  church.  I  see  not  how 
the  force  of  them  can  be  evaded.  I  see  not, 
indeed,  how  any  one,  with  this  question  be- 
fore him,  can  read  attentively  the  book  of 
Isaiah,  and  believe  otherwise.  Christ,  as 
man,  was  a  member  of  that  church.  He 
was  "  made  under  the  law  "  (Gal.  4:4);  and 
"  was  a  minister  of  the  circumcision."  (Rom, 
15  :  8.)  He  submitted  to  the  ordinances  of 
that  church  ;  and  endorsed  its  validity.  To 
the  multitude  and  his  disciples  he  said : 
"  The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  sit  in  Moses' 
seat.  All  therefore  whatsoever  they  bid  you 
observe,  that  observe  and  do."  (Matt.  23  :  2, 
3.)     There  were  in  it,  when  he  came,  some 


26  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

living  members,  who  "  walked  in  all  the 
commandments  and  ordinances  of  the  Lord 
blameless,"  and  "  waited  for  the  consolation 
of  Israel."  Christ  came,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  enlarge  and  beautify  it.  The  object  of 
his  "being  made  a  curse  for  us,"  as  Paul 
expressly  declares,  was,  "that  the  blessing 
of  Abraham  might  come  on  the  Gentiles 
through "  him.  And  here  we  see  how  it 
was  that  Abraham  became  "  the  father  of  all 
them  that  believe."  It  was  not  because  he 
was  the  first  believer ;  for  he  was  not.  It 
was  not  because  he  was  a  more  eminent 
saint  than  such  men  as  Enoch  and  Elijah ; 
for  we  have  no  reason  to  regard  him  as  such. 
It  was  because  he  was  constituted  the  head 
of  the  visible  church.  It  was  because  the 
covenant  was  made  with  him  which  consti- 
tuted the  first  regularly  organized  commu- 
nity of  God's  worshippers,  from  which  all 
others  are  derived.     "  He  received  the  sign 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  27 

of  circumcision,"  (says  Paul,)  — "that  he 
mio-ht  be  the  father  of  all  them  that  be- 
lieve,"  both  of  Jews  and  Gentiles; — that  Is, 
the  head  of  the  visible  church.  (Rom.  4 :  11.) 
Let  the  truth  which  has  now  been  before 
us  be  a  fixed  fact  in  our  minds.  And  let  us 
accustom  ourselves  to  feel  and  speak  of  the 
Jewish  church  with  respect.  It  was  God's 
church  ;  one  which  he  loved ;  and  for  the 
sake  of  which  he  reproved  kings ;  and  of 
which  he  said,  "  Every  tongue  that  shall  rise 
against  thee  in  judgment,  thou  shalt  con- 
demn." (Isa.  54:  17.)  It  was  never,  as 
some  have  styled  it,  a  legal  church.  A  legal 
church  among  those  who  have  sinned  is  an 
impossibility.  The  Israelites  were  no  more 
expected  to  acquire  merit  before  God  by  re- 
ligious and  other  observances,  than  any  per- 
son or  community  now  is.  The  religion  of 
a  sinner,  to  be  acceptable  to  God,  in  any 
age  of  the  world,  must  embrace  the  same 


28  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

elements.  And  happy  will  it  be  for  ns,  if  a 
portion  of  the  piety  and  grace  which  adorn- 
ed the  worthies  of  the  Jewish  church  is 
ours. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    CHARTER    OF    THE     CHURCH.  ■ —  THIS    SEALED. 
—  THE    SEAL    CHANGED. 

The  church,  as  we  have  defined  it,  is  a 
company  of  persons  whom  God  takes  into 
covenant  ivith  himself  as  his  professed  ser- 
vants and  lu  or  shippers^  and  to  ivhom  he  stipu- 
lates certain  privileges  and  blessings.  —  The 
covenant  which  God  made  with  Abraham, 
by  which  a  church  was  instituted  in  his  fam- 
ily, is  therefore  the  charter  of  that  church's 
rights.  It  specifies  what  he  and  the  church 
thus  formed  might  expect  from  God  by  vir- 
tue of  that  transaction. 

It  is,  then,  an  important  inquiry  (and  the 
more  so,  since,  as  we  have  seen,  the  church 
under  both  dispensations  is  the  same).  What 


30  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

blessings  did  God  promise  to  Abraham? 
What  ivas  embraced  in  the  charter  of  rights 
given  to  the  church  ivhich  ivas  organized 
amo7ig  his  descendants? 

The  engagement  with  Abraham  included 
some  temporal  things ;  —  such  as  a  numer- 
ous posterity,  the  possession  of  the  land 
of  Canaan  by  his  posterity,  and  outward 
national  prosperity  on  condition  of  adhering 
to  the  divine  commands.  But  the  more  im- 
portant were  spiritual  blessings.  The  first 
recorded  specification,  which  was  made 
when  he  was  called  to  leave  his  native 
country,  was,  that  he  should  be  a  blessing, 
and  that  in  him  all  the  families  of  the  earth 
should  be  blessed.  (Gen.  12:  2,  3.)  This 
was  a  promise  of  all  that  grace  and  favor  to 
him  and  his  posterity  by  which  this  should 
be  accomplished.  Some  twenty-five  years 
afterward,  a  more  formal  and  solemn  en- 
gagement was  made.      "  And  —  the  Lord 


I 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  31 

appeared  unto  Abraham,  and  said  unto  him, 
I  am  the  Ahnighty  God ;  walk  thou  before 
me,  and  be  thou  perfect  —  and  I  will  estab- 
lish my  covenant  between  me  and  thee,  and 
thy  seed  after  thee  in  their  generations,  for 
an  everlasting  covenant ;  to  be  a  God  unto 
thee,  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee."  (Gen. 
17 :  1,  7.)  This  covenant  was  then  sealed 
by  the  institution  and  performance  of  the 
rite  of  circumcision.  And  of  this  God  said, 
"  it  shall  be  a  token  of  the  covenant  betwixt 
me  and  you"  (v.  11).  —  Afterward  God 
promised  him,  "  In  thy  seed  shall  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  be  blessed"  (Gen.  22: 
18)  ;  referring,  as  an  apostle  informs  us, 
specifically  to  Christ ;  and  meaning  that  he 
should  come  in  the  line  of  Abraham's  pos- 
terity, and  that  through  him,  and  the  church, 
of  which  he  is  the  head  and  the  representa- 
tive, the  world  should  be  blessed. 

But  the  point  at  which  the  covenant  was 


32  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

formally  announced  and  sealed,  embodies 
the  grand  transaction.  All  other  things 
were  virtaally  embraced  in  this,  and  were 
only  specified  as  defining  some  of  its  partic- 
ulars. 

When  God  thus  solemnly  engaged  to 
Abraham,  "I  will  be  a  God  to  thee;"  less 
cannot  be  meant  than  that  God  would  be 
his  spiritual  father  and  friend,  and  fulfil  the 
high  import  of  that  sacred  relation  by  im- 
parting to  him  all  needful  protection,  and 
bestowing  upon  him  all  needful  grace,  for 
time  and  eternity.  The  promise  was  an  as- 
surance of  his  acceptance  with  God  as  a 
penitent  believer.  Hence  an  apostle  says, 
"  He  received  the  seal  of  circumcision,  a  seal 
of  the  righteousness  of  the  faith  ivhich  he  had, 
yet  being  iiyicircumcisedy  (Rom.  4:  11.) 
And  the  promise  made  to  him  in  behalf  of 
his  children  was  the  same  as  that  made  to 
himself.    The  same  language  was  used ;  and 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  33 

no  intimation  is  given  that  it  is  employed 
in  an  inferior  sense.  And,  indeed,  the  holy 
man  would  have  felt  it  to  be  a  mockery  of 
his  highest  desires  to  have  temporal  bless- 
ings only  engaged  to  his  children  and  pos- 
terity, while  spiritual  blessings  were  engag- 
ed to  himself.  This  could  not  be  ;  because, 
as  the  covenant  secured  the  existence  of  the 
church  among  his  descendants,  it  secured 
the  existence  of  piety ;  for,  where  the  church 
is,  there  piety  must  be.  The  promise,  "  I 
will  establish  my  covenant  between  me  and 
thee,  and  thy  seed  after  thee,  in  their  gener- 
ations, for  an  everlasting  covenant;  to  be  a 
God  unto  thee,  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee," 
was  an  engagement  that  they  should  be 
brought  into  the  same  relation  to  God  in 
which  himself  stood.  It  was  a  promise  of 
the  bestowment  upon  them  of  saving  grace. 
It  could  mean  nothing  less  than  this. 
Here,  indeed,  a  condition  was  involved. 
3 


84  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

Abraham  must  be  faithfal.  He  must  be 
simply  and  sincerely  devoted  to  God.  He 
must  be  a  priest  of  Jehovah  in  his  house, 
maintaining  the  worship  of  God  in  it,  and 
governing  his  household  aright,  and  instruct- 
ing them  in  the  things  of  God.  And  in 
proportion  to  his  fidelity  in  these  respects 
might  he  claim  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise 
to  his  children,  in  its  high  spiritual  meaning ; 
and  through  them  to  succeeding  generations. 
It  was  a  promise  that  God  would  bless 
his  efforts,  by  the  bestowment  of  saving 
grace  upon  his  offspring,  and  so  downward 
in  the  line  of  his  posterity.  And  hence  we 
hear  God  saying  of  Abraham,  "  I  know  him, 
that  he  will  command  his  children  and  his 
household  after  him,  and  they  shall  keep 
the  right  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice 
and  judgment,  that  the  Lord  may  bring 
upon  Abraham  that  which  he  hath  spoken 
of  him."    (Gen.    18  :    19.)     Such    was  the 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  35 

charter  of  privileges    given   to   the  Jewish 
church. 

Another  question  here  arises :  Was  this 
charter  revoked  or  altered  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Christian  dispensation  ?  —  The 
fact,  ah'eady  proved,  that  the  church  remains 
the  same,  is,  in  itself,  presumptive  evidence 
that  the  charter  is  not  annulled;  for,  the  an- 
nulling or  withdrawing  of  a  charter,  unless 
a  new  one  is  given,  dissolves  the  body  which 
it  had  created.  But,  has  it  ceased  to  be  a 
law  of- God's  moral  administration,  through 
Christ  and  the  church  to  bless  the  world  ? 
Is  it  no  longer  a  fact,  that  God  blesses 
children  through  their  parents  ?  Is  not  the 
truth  written  on  every  page  of  the  church's 
history,  that  the  prayers,  instructions,  and 
example  of  pious  parents  are  one  of  his 
chosen  instrumentalities  for  the  conversion 
and  salvation  of  their  offspring?  As  well 
may  we  expect  the  laws  of  nature  to  cease 


36  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

as  that  principle  to  cease,  which  has  run 
through  the  whole  of  God's  moral  govern- 
ment of  the  world,  which  he  expressed  to 
Abraham  in  the  points  before  us,  and  which, 
through  him,  he  solemnly  covenanted  to  the 
church. 

But  perhaps  it  is  here  said,  The  Jewish 
ceremonial  law  is  abolished,  and  with  it  went 
the  Abrahamic  covenant ;  —  all  these  Old 
Testament  transactions  w^ere  swept  away. 
Has  the  law  of  the  ten  commandment s^  then, 
become  null  and  void?  And  how  came 
Paul  to  say  that  "  Christ  v/as  a  minister  of 
the  circumcision  for  the  truth  of  God,  to 
confirm  the  promises  made  unto  the  fathers  ?  " 
and  that  "  all  the  promises  of  God  in  him  are 
yea^  and  in  him,  Amen,  to  the  glory  of  God 
by  us?  "  (Rom.  15 :  8,  and  2  Cor.  1 :  20.) 
The  ceremonial  law,  indeed,  has  ceased;  but 
the  covenant  with  Abraham  formed  no  part 
of  that  law.    The  promise  that  Christ  should 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  37 

come  and  bless  the  world,  surely,  was  no 
part  of  it.  None  of  the  promises  made  to 
Abraham  were  any  part  of  it.  They  were 
as  distinct  from  it  as  any  transaction  could 
possibly  be.  So  the  apostle  reasons  in  the 
third  chapter  of  Galatians.  "  Brethren,  I 
speak  after  the  manner  of  men  :  Though  it 
be  but  a  man's  covenant,  yet  if  it  be  con- 
firmed, no  man  disannulleth  or  addeth  there- 
unto. Now  to  Abraham  and  his  seed  were 
the  promises  made.  He  saith  not.  And  to 
seeds,  as  of  many ;  but  as  of  one.  And  thy 
seed,  which  is  Christ.  And  this  I  say,  that 
the  covenant  which  was  confirmed  before  of 
God  in  Christ,  the  law,  which  was  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years  after,  cannot  dis- 
annul, that  it  should  make  the  promise  of 
none  effect."  The  reasoning  of  the  apostle 
is,  that  the  law,  which  was  given  at  Sinai 
430  years  after  the  covenant  made  with 
Abraham,  was  an  entirely  distinct  thing,  and 


38  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

did  not,  in  the  least,  affect  it.  That  cove- 
nant was  confirmed  by  God  in  Christ ;  and, 
according  to  the  apostle's  showing,  being 
thus  established,  could  not  be  disannulled. 
It  was  God's  covenant,  and  hence  unspeak- 
ably more  firm  and  less  mutable  than  any 
human  engagement.  "  The  law,"  he  says, 
"was  added  because  of  transgression,  till 
the  seed  sliould  come  to  whom  the  promise 
was  made."  (v.  19.)  It  was  added  [ap- 
pended] to  the  promises  made  to  Abraham 
till  Christ  should  come ;  and  then  the  cere- 
monial part  of  it  was  to  be  taken  away. 
The  ceremonial  law  was  the  "hand-writing 
of  ordinances  "  which  Christ  blotted  out  and 
took  away  by  naiUng  it  to  his  cross.  (Col. 
2 :  14.)  It  "  was  added  "  and  "  taken  away," 
leaving  the  Abrahamic  covenant  just  as  it 
was.  That  covenant,  in  all  the  fulness  of 
its  promises,  is  still  the  rich  inheritance  of 
the    church.      It   was  never  God's  design, 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  39 

under  the  Christian  dispensation,  to  abridge 
the  privileges  of  his  people.  The  very  idea, 
that,  under  a  better  economy,  these  were  to 
be  diminished,  is  preposterous.  Christ  did 
not  abolish  one  of  the  promises  made  unto 
the  fathers.  He  came  to  confirm  and  fulfil 
them  —  to  fulfil  some  of  them  in  his  own 
person,  and  others  in  the  bestowments  of  his 
spirit  and  grace.  And  the  apostle,  at  the 
commencement  of  his  argument  in  the  third 
of  Galatians,  is  careful  to  assure  us  that  the 
object  of  Christ's  death  was,  that  the  blessing 
of  Abraham  might  come  on  the  Gentiles. 
Christ,  he  says,  "  was  made  a  curse  for  us 
—  that  the  blessing  of  Abraham  might  come 
on  the  Gentiles  through  Jesus  Christ ;  —  that 
we  might  receive  the  promise  of  the  spirit 
by  faith."  Justification  by  faith,  and  the 
Spirit  to  effect  all  the  blessings,  personal  and 
relative,  promised  to  Abraham,  are  here  an- 
nounced as  coming  on  the  Gentiles  through 


40  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

Christ ;  and  the  design  of  his  death  was  to 
secure  this  effect.  And  hence  the  conclu- 
sion to  which  the  argument  of  the  apostle 
conducts  hiin :  "  If  ye  be  Christ's,  then  are 
ye  Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs  according  to 
the  promise  :  "  —  "  heirs  "  —  inheritors  of  the 
blessings  covenanted  to  him.  The  charter 
of  the  church,  then,  remains  unchanged. 

It  has  been  already  remarked  that  the 
covenant  with  Abraham  was  sealed  by  the 
instituting  of  circumcision.  This  ordinance 
was  commanded  to  be  strictly  observed  by 
all  his  descendants.  And  so  important  did 
God  regard  this  seal,  that  he  threatened  the 
delinquent  with  being  "  cut  off  from  among 
his  people."  (Gen.  17:  14.) 

But  why  did  God  affix  a  seal  to  his  cove- 
nant with  Abraham  ?  and  why  did  he  con- 
sider it  so  important  that  its  neglect  should 
incur  the  forfeiture  of  the  subject's  life  ?  — 
for   such   is  probably  the  meaning  of  the 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  41 

threatening.  (See  Ex.  81:  14.)  God's 
word  of  promise,  surely,  needs  no  additional 
security.  His  veracity  is  not  to  be  doubted. 
The  seal  was  intended  to  meet  an  infirmity 
of  humanity  —  to  confirm  to  men  God's 
fidelity  to  his  engagements,  and  remind  them 
of  implied  obligations  and  duties.  God 
knew  man's  proneness  to  forget.  Even  Abra- 
ham needed  to  have  his  faith  in  the  divine 
promises  strengthened.  And  his  posterity 
would  need  to  be  reminded  of  the  solemn 
transactions  between  God  and  their  progen- 
itor; and  of  the  relation  into  which  they 
were  brought  to  God,  and  of  what  he  con- 
sequently expected  of  them.  This  would 
tend  to  secure  them  to  his  service ;  to  re- 
claim them  when  they  wandered ;  and  to  in- 
spire them  with  confidence  in  his  promises 
in  seasons  of  calamity  and  trial.  It  was 
given  to  Abraham  for  the  same  reason  that 
a  token  was  given  to  Noah  and  the  post- 


42  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

diluvian  world,  that  a  flood  should  not 
again  destroy  the  earth.  It  was  given  on 
the  same  principle,  that,  under  the  Jewish 
dispensation,  types  prefigured  blessings  to 
come  ;  and,  under  the  Christian,  ordinances 
are  remembrances  and  seals  of  blessings 
bestowed.  Every  outward  institution  is 
intended  to  meet  some  necessity  of  our 
nature :  and  such  memorials  will  be  re- 
quisite while  that  nature  remains  what  it 
has  been,  and  what  it  is. 

If,  then,  the  covenant  with  Abraham  — 
the  great  charter  of  the  church's  rights  — 
remains,  a  seal  is  to  be  expected.  It  would 
be  preposterous  to  suppose  that  a  covenant, 
once  sealed,  and  still  in  force,  has  had  its 
seal  removed.  When  the  testimony  of 
validity  is  removed  from  an  instrument,  it 
becomes  void.  Unless,  therefore,  God  is 
less  benevolent  than  he  once  was — less 
desirous   of  human  welfare  —  or  man  has 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  43 

become  more  observant  of  his  Maker's  will, 


and  needs  less  reminding;  we  may  be  sure 
that  his  covenant  has  still  a  seal.  Can  we 
for  a  moment  admit,  that,  under  the  Chris- 
tian dispensation,  faith  has  less  to  encourage 
and  strengthen  it,  less  to  feed  and  live  upon, 
than  under  the  Jewish  ?  Can  w^e  admit  that 
it  has  a  narrower  range  of  promise,  or  less 
security  for  the  fulfilment  of  divine  engage- 
ments? Such  a  supposition  would  be  at 
war  with  all  the  representations  of  increased 
advantages  under  the  present  economy.  It 
would  be  little  less  than  a  libel  on  that  dis- 
pensation itself.  Or  can  any  pretend  that 
parents  are  so  much  more  careful  of  the 
religious  training  of  their  children  as  to  need 
less  reminding;  or  that  they  have  so  much 
more  confidence  in  the  fulfilment  of  God's 
promises  than  even  Abraham  had,  that  they 
need  no  encouragement  from  an  outward 
and  impressive  rite?  Such  inquiries  need 
no  replies. 


44  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

But  here  it  may  be  asked,  If  the  Abra- 
hamic  covenant  remains,  why  is  not  its 
original  seal  continued  ?  I  reply  :  The  per- 
petuity of  that  covenant  is  unaffected  by  the 
question  whether  or  not  we  can  see  the  rea- 
son of  the  discontinuance  of  circumcision. 
But  further;  that  rite,  though  instituted 
long  before  the  giving  of  ceremonial  law, 
had  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  pledge  to  ful- 
fil it.  Said  Paul  to  the  Galatians,  "  I  testi- 
fy again  to  every  man  that  is  circumcised, 
that  he  is  a  debtor  to  do  the  whole  law." 
(Gal.  5 :  3.)  The  Judaizing  teachers  insist- 
ed that  unless  the  Gentile  converts  were 
circumcised  and  kept  the  law  of  Moses,  i.  e. 
the  ceremonial  law,  they  could  not  be  saved ; 
thus  subverting  the  very  foundation  prin- 
ciple of  the  gospel,  justification  by  faith 
in  Christ  alone.  Hence  the  sharp  conten- 
tion which  arose  respecting  this  question, 
and  the  calling  of  the  council  at  Jerusalem 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  45 

to  decide  it.  If  the  Gentile  converts  were 
circumcised,  they  would  be  virtually  prose- 
lyted to  the  Jewish  religion,  and  be  pledged 
to  all  its  observances  as  requisite  for  accept- 
ance with  God.  It  hence  became  indis- 
pensable that  circumcision  should  be  laid 
aside.  If  this  was  not  the  only  way  in 
which  the  evil  could  be  corrected,  it  was  the 
readiest  way,  and  the  one  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  designated.  And  it  should  be 
specially  noticed  that  this  connection  be- 
tween circumcision  and  the  ceremonial  law 
was  the  sole  ground  of  argument  before  the 
council  at  Jerusalem,  and  the  reason  on 
which  its  decision  was  based.  The  question 
was  not.  Circumcision  as  the  seal  of  the 
Abrahamic  covenant;  but,  Circumcision  as 
connected  ivith  the  Jewish  ceremonial  laiv. 
And  if  any  should  ask  why,  if  that  rite  as  a 
seal  of  the  covenant  had  given  place  to  an- 
other, nothing  was  said  about  the  change, 


46  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

we  reply :  That  nothing  was  said  respecting 
this,  we  do  not  know.  But  this  was  not  the 
point  at  issue  ;  and,  therefore,  the  brief  result 
is  silent  respecting  it.  Nor  was  it  needful 
to  raise  that  question,  since,  as  we  contend, 
another  rite  had  been  substituted,  and  was 
generally  observed. 

This  leads  us  to  the  next  point  in  order : 
Was  the  form  of  the  seal  of  the  Abrahamic 
covenant  changed  at  the  introduction  of  the 
gospel  dispensation  ?  —  If  no  other  reason 
for  such  a  change  had  existed  but  the 
Saviour's  foresight  of  the  abuse  to  which 
circumcision  would  be  subjected,  this  was 
sufficient.  And,  further,  it  is  not  unnatural 
to  expect,  that,  with  the  introduction  of  a 
milder  dispensation,  and  one  suited  to  a 
more  highly  civilized  state  of  the  world,  and 
with  the  ceasing  of  sacrifices  when  the  great 
sacrifice  which  they  prefigured  had  been  of- 
fered;  all  bloody  rites  would  cease,  and  a 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  47 

rite  of  similar  moral  significancy  would  take 
the  place  of  circumcision.  A  rite  of  similar 
significance  existed ;  and  had  from  time  im- 
memorial. Those,  who,  from  other  nations, 
were  proselyted  to  the  Jewish  religion,  were 
circumcised  and  baptized,  —  males  submit- 
ting to  both  rites,  and  females  to  the  latter. 
The  latter  rite  [baptism]  the  Saviour 
adopted  as  a  token  of  discipleship  to  him, 
by  commanding  it  to  be  applied  to  all  who 
should  embrace  the  gospel.  "  Go  teach  all 
nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  He  thus  placed  baptism^  as  an 
initiatory  rite,  in  the  same  relation  to  the 
Christian  church  in  ivhich  circumcision  had 
stood  to  the  Jeivish.  It  became  a  necessary 
prerequisite  to  membership.  And,  to  adult 
receivers,  it  became  precisely  luhat  circum- 
cision teas  to  Abraham,  "  a  seal  of  the  right- 
eousness offaith'^  —  a  seal  of  acceptance  and 
justification  by  faith. 


48  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

In  emblematic  significancy,  circumcision 
and  baptism  are  precisely  similar.  The 
typical  import  of  circumcision  is,  the  renew- 
al of  the  heart  to  holiness  —  cleansing  from 
moral  defilement.  "  Circumcise  therefore 
the  foreskin  of  your  heart,  and  be  no  more 
stiff-necked;"  "  And  the  Lord  thy  God  will 
circumcise  thy  heart,  and  the  heart  of  thy 
seed,  to  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul."  (Deut.  10 :  16. 
30 :  6.)  And  Paul  speaks  of  the  Chris- 
tians at  Colosse  as  ''  circumcised  with  the 
circumcision  made  without  hands,  in  putting 
off  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh."  The 
typical  import  of  baptism  is  the  same  —  the 
renewal  of  the  heart  to  holiness  —  cleansins^ 
from  the  defilement  of  sin.  Hence  the  fol- 
lowing declarations ;  "  For  as  many  of  you 
as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ,  have  put 
on  Christ ; "  —  have  become  morally  like 
him.  (Gal.  3:  27.)     "  Know  ye  not  that  so 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  49 

many  of  you  as  were  baptized  into  Jesus 
Christ,  were  baptized  into  his  death:"  i.  e. 
have  become  dead  to  sin.  (Rom.  6  :  3.)  The 
direction  of  Ananias  to  Saul  expresses  the 
typical  import  of  this  rite :  "  Arise,  and  be 
baptized,  and  wasli  away  thy  sins."  (Acts 
22 :  16.)  Literal  circumcision  and  literal 
baptism  are  emblems  of  spiritual  circumcis- 
ion and  spiritual  baptism.  But  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage,  the  two  latter  are  placed 
before  us  as  being  precisely  similar  in  nature 
and  effect :  "  In  whom  ye  are  circumcised 
with  the  circumcision  made  without  hands, 
in  putting  off  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the 
flesh  by  the  circumcision  of  Christ ;  buried 
with  him  by  baptism,  wherein  also  ye  are 
risen  with  him  through  the  faith  of  the  oper- 
ation of  God,  who  hath  raised  him  from 
the  dead."     (Col.  2:  11,12.) 

These  two   rites,  then,   mean  the   same 
thing;    and   the  latter,  by  Christ's   express 
4 


50  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

command,  stands  in  the  same  relation  to  the 
Christian  chm'ch  in  which  the  former  did  to 
the  Jewish.  Bat  we  have  seen  that  the 
church  is  the  continuation  of  the  Jewish 
church.  It  follows,  then,  that  by  Christ's 
express  command,  baptism  takes  the  place 
of  circumcision.  It  is  a  token  of  the  same 
covenant  and  a  seal  of  the  same  spiritual 
blessings.  This  result  has  been  reached 
by  a  process  of  reasoning  which  we  think  is 
legitimate  and  conclusive.  We  see  not  how 
any  position  we  have  taken  can  be  disprov- 
ed. And  here  we  might  rest  the  propriety 
of  applying  baptism  to  the  children  of  be- 
lievers. But  a  few  additional  arguments 
should  receive  attention ;  and  some  objec- 
tions to  the  conclusion  we  have  reached  de- 
serve to  be  considered. 


CHAPTER  III. 

TWO  OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED.  —  FURTHER  ARGU- 
MENTS.—  THE  CONDUCT  OF  CHRIST  AND  THE 
APOSTLES. — NO  COMPLAINTS  FROM  CONVERTED 
JEWS. TESTIMONY   FROM    HISTORY. 

OuPt  inference  from  the  foregoing  reason- 
ing is;  that,  unless  a  limitation  has  been 
introduced,  the  seal  of  the  covenant  should 
now  be  applied  as  extensively  as  under  the 
former  dispensation ;  i.  e.  to  the  children  of 
God's  professed  people.  If  the  covenant  re- 
mains unchanged,  the  seal,  in  its  new  form, 
should  be  applied  by  the  same  rule  as  be- 
fore, unless  a  different  rule  has  been  in- 
troduced. 

Some  pretend  that  a  different  rule  has 
been  given  —  that  the  doctrine  of  the  New 


52  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

Testament  is,  that  a  person  must  believe 
before  he  is  baptized.  In  support  of  this,  it 
is  said,  that  the  multitude  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost  were  directed :  "  Repent  and  be 
baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  ;"  "  and  they  that  gladly  re- 
ceived the  word  were  baptized ;  "  that  Philip 
required  faith  in  the  eunuch  as  a  prerequi- 
site to  baptism ;  and  that  Lydia,  and  the 
jailer,  and  Saul  of  Tarsus,  believed  before 
they  were  baptized. 

All  this  is  trne  ;  but  the  facts  do  not  touch 
the  question  of  Infant  Baptism  at  all.  This 
is  easily  shown.  The  missionaries  to  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  when  those  who  had  been 
trained  in  heathenism,  gave  evidence  of 
piety,  required  every  one  of  them  to  be 
baptized  in  the  name  of  Christ.  And  why  ? 
Did  not  those  missionaries  believe  in  Infant 
Baptism  ?  They  certainly  did.  And  the 
fact,  that,  for  a  number  of  years,  they  re- 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  53 

quired  all  the  adults  who  professed  faith  in 
Christ  to  be  baptized  was  not,  in  the  least, 
inconsistent  with  that  belief.  The  reason  is 
plain :  The  gospel  was  then  just  intro- 
duced ;  and,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  those 
persons  could  not  have  been  baptized  in 
their  infancy.  Just  so  it  w^as  in  the  case 
before  us.  The  nuiltitude  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  the  eunuch,  Lydia,  the  jailer, 
Saul,  and  others,  could  not  have  received 
baptism,  w^hen  young,  because  baptism,  as 
a  Christian  rite,  did  not  then  exist :  the 
gospel  dispensation  had  just  commenced. 
The  facts  thus  adduced  to  disprove  the 
propriety  of  applying  baptism  to  infants  are 
entirely  irrelevant.  They  have  not  the  most 
distant  bearing  on  the  question.  Admit  the 
apostles  to  have  been  the  firmest  believers 
in  this  doctrine,  and  they  would  have  done, 
in  all  these  cases,  precisely  as  they  did. 
There  may,  indeed,  be  a  degree  of  plausi- 


54  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

bility  in  the  idea  of  purging  the  church  by- 
rejecting  infants  from  the  covenant,  under 
the  pretence  that  retaining  them  tends  to 
corrupt  it  by  introducing  unconverted  mem- 
bers. But  we  deny  that  Infant  Baptism, 
properly  understood  and  practised,  has  any 
such  tendency.  The  rite,  as  we  shall  here- 
after show,  does  not  constitute  them 
members ;  and  none  are  more  watchful  to 
admit  only  the  converted  than  those  who 
understandingly  practise  it.  God's  method 
of  purifying  the  church  was  not  to  do  it  by 
reducing  the  number  of  his  promises.  It 
was  never  his  intention  to  recall  some  of 
them,  and  give  to  faith  a  narrower  scope  of 
divine  engagements,  and  less  food  and  en- 
couragement. Such  an  idea  is  utterly  in- 
consistent with  the  declaration  that  all  the 
promises  are  "  Yea,"  and  "Amen,"  in  Christ, 
and  should  be  at  once  and  forever  dis- 
carded. 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  55 

In  this  place  it  is  proper  to  notice  anotlier 
objection  to  the  idea  that  baptism  takes  the 
place  of  circumcision.  It  is,  that,  on  cm- 
bracing  Christianity,  those  who  had  been 
circumcised  were  required  to  submit  to  bap- 
tism. To  this  I  reply.  There  was  a  specific 
meaning  in  baptism,  over  and  above  what 
was  implied  in  circumcision.  Circumcision 
was  an  acknowledgment  of  Jehovah  as  the 
only  true  God,  and  a  profession  of  subjec- 
tion to  him  as  such  in  the  character  of  wor- 
shippers and  servants.  Baptism  includes 
all  this ;  and  is  also  a  specific  profession  of 
discipleship  to  Christ.  It  involves  a  definite 
acknowledgment  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is 
the  true  Messiah,  a  profession  of  faith  in 
him  as  such,  and  a  consecration  to  his  ser- 
vice.*    Hence  the  multitude   on  the  day  of 

*  Should  any  suppose  that  this  remark  conflicts 
■with  the  application  of  baptism  to  infants,  it  is  suf- 


56  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

Pentecost  were  required  to  be  baptized  "  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  JesusP  The  converts 
at  Samaria  also,  and  Cornelius,  and  others, 
are  said  to  have  been  "  baptized  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  JcsusP  Not  that  the  name  of  the 
Trinity  was  not  placed  upon  them  ;  but  that 
a  leading  and  specific  idea  ^^^^  a  profession 
of  discipleship  to  Christ.  At  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  new  dispensation,  it  was  proper 
that  the  rite  of  initiation,  while  it  had  the 
same  emblematic  significance  as  the  one 
which  preceded  it,  should  imply  more,  and 
hence  be  required  of  those  who  had  submitted 
to  the  other.  Those,  generally,  who  had  been 
circumcised,  hated  and  rejected  Christ.  It 
was  therefore  proper,  that,  in  a  specific  rite 
they  should  be  required  to  acknowledge  him 

ficient  to  reply  that  the  baptism  of  an  infant  is  an  act 
of  the  parent,  and  not  an  act  of  the  child.  It  implies 
all  this  in  the  parent,  and  a  consecration  of  his  child 
to  Christ. 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  57 

as  the  promised  Messiah,  and  engage  alle- 
giance to  him  as  their  rightful  sovereign. 
This  was  God's  method  of  purifying  the 
chm'ch.  By  introducing  a  new  test,  he  vir- 
tually broke  off  the  unfruitful  branches,  and 
cleansed  the  church  of  unworthy  members. 
The  believing  Jews  submitted  to  Christ,  and 
believing  Gentiles  were  added ;  and  thus, 
out  of  twain,  upon  the  previous  foundation, 
was  formed  a  more  pure  and  spiritual  body 
than  the  previous  organization  had  been. 

I  now  proceed  to  adduce  a  few  additional 
arguments  in  support  of  the  sentiment  that 
Infant  Baptism  is  an  ordinance  of  the 
gospel. 

1.  Christ  and  his  apostles  taught  and 
practised  just  as  lue  should  have  expected^ 
if  children  luere  still  to  be  regarded  as  in 
covenant  with  their  parents^  and  just  as  ice 
should  not  have  expected  on  the  contrary 
supposition.     We  should  bear  in  mind  that 


58  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

Christ  and  his  apostles  belonged  to  a  nation, 
who,  during  their  whole  history,  had  been 
taught  to  dedicate  their  children  to  God  by 
a  solemn  religious  rite,  and  this,  because, 
with  their  parents,  they  were  entitled  to  cer- 
tain specific  blessings.  These  facts  were 
associated  with  all  their  ideas  of  true  relig- 
ion and  the  principles  of  the  divine  ad- 
ministration. In  conformity  to  an  express 
divine  injunction,  they  had  been  accustomed 
to  see  Jewish  children  receive  the  token  of 
the  covenant  made  with  their  early  progeni- 
tor. When  any  from  among  the  Gentiles 
were  disposed  to  embrace  their  religion, 
they  had  seen  the  children  of  such  families 
embraced  in  the  covenant  transaction  by 
which  the  parents  consecrated  themselves 
to  the  service  of  Jehovah.  The  practice  of 
receiving  children  with  their  parents  to  the 
blessings  of  the  same  covenant,  was  rooted 
in  their  minds  as  among  the  fundamental 
principles  of  propriety  and  right. 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  59 

Now  if  Christ  intended  to  introduce  a 
new  order  of  things  in  this  respect,  it  is  ob- 
vious that  much  instruction  would  have 
been  requisite  to  subdue  the  prejudices,  and 
modify  the  opinions  of  his  disciples,  and 
prepare  their  minds  for  so  great  a  change. 
But  while  he  severely  criticized  the  abuses 
which  had  crept  into  that  dispensation,  and 
the  principles  and  practices  of  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  —  while  he  spared  nothing 
which  required  rebuke  or  censure,  and  while 
he  carefully  taught  the  disciples  the  spiritual 
nature  of  his  kingdom  ;  we  hear  him  giving 
no  such  instructions,  nor  even  hinting  at  the 
intention  of  a  change.  On  the  contrary,  he 
encouraged  the  bringing  of  children  to  him 
for  his  blessing,  and  rebuked  those  who 
would  have  hindered  the  practice,  and 
because  Zaccheus  himself  was  a  son  of 
Abraham,  pronounced  blessings  on  his  fam- 
ily.    And  after  seeing  such  things  in  their 


60  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

Master,  and  being  reproved  by  him  for  an 
unwillingness  that  children  should  be 
brought  to  him,  and  hearing  him  declare 
that  of  such  were  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ; 
would  the  disciples  be  likely  to  infer,  that, 
under  the  Christian  dispensation,  he  intend- 
ed to  exclude  children  from  the  covenant 
with  God  into  which  their  parents  were 
brought  ?  And  would  they  not  have  waited 
for  an  order  from  him  to  inaugurate  a 
practice  exactly  the  opposite  of  that  in 
which  they  had  been  trained  ?  And,  strong 
as  were  their  Jewish  prejudices,  and  slow  as 
they  were  to  relinquish  the  idea  of  a  tem- 
poral kingdom,  or  yield  any  of  the  opinions 
they  had  cherished;  would  not  such  an 
order,  plain  and  oft  repeated,  have  been 
needful  to  induce  them  to  regard  and  treat 
children  as  no  longer  in  covenant  with  their 
parents  ?  Would  not  such  an  order  have 
awaked  strange  thoughts  in  their  minds,  and 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  61 

occasioned  conversation  and  discussion,  and 
excited  some  manifestation  of  hostility  to 
such  an  arrangement  ?  But  no  such  direc- 
tion appears,  nor  even  an  intimation  that 
such  a  change  was  intended ;  nor  is  there 
anywhere  betrayed,  in  the  intercourse  of  the 
disciples,  a  hint  that  such  a  direction  had 
been  received.  This  is  just  what  we  should 
have  expected  of  the  Saviour^  and  thus  far 
of  the  disciples^  if  children  ivere  still  to  be 
considered  as  objects  of  God's  covenant  favor  ; 
and  just  what  we  shoidd  7iot  have  expected 
if  the?/  IV ere  not. 

Commissioned  by  their  Redeemer,  the 
apostles  went  forth  to  propagate  his  religion. 
The  Spirit,  which  had  been  promised  to 
guide  them  into  all  truth,  had  been  given. 
They  acted  under  his  guidance.  What 
was  their  practice  in  relation  to  the  point 
before  us  ?  To  adults,  they  administered 
baptism  on  a  profession  of  their  faith.     But 


62  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

did  they  baptize  none  beside  ?  This  ques- 
tion must  be  answered  by  carefully  examin- 
ing the  history  of  their  proceedings  as  given 
us  by  the  pen  of  inspiration.  Paul  and 
Silas  went  to  Philippi,  and  preached.  Lydia 
was  converted.'  "  She  was  baptized,  and 
her  household."  But  nothing  is  said  of  the 
conversion  of  its  members.  This,  had  it 
taken  place,  and  almost  simultaneously 
with  her  own,  would  have  been  a  remark- 
able occurrence,  and  far  more  worthy  of 
being  noted,  than  the  circumstance  of  their 
baptism.  When  it  is  said  that  the  Lord 
opened  her  heart,  why  is  it  not  added,  "and 
the  hearts  of  her  household,"  if,  indeed,  the 
fact  occurred  ?  This  is  not  said.  But  it  is 
said  that  they  were  baptized.  Why  the 
record  of  the  less  to  the  omission  of  the 
greater  ?  Is  it  assumed  that  their  conver- 
sion is  implied  in  the  fact  of  their  baptism  ? 
This   is   assumption  without  proof.      It  is 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  63 

begging  the  question  at  issue.  It  is  no- 
where asserted  in  the  New  Testament  that 
none  but  believers  are  to  be  baptized.  As 
has  been  before  remarked,  converts  from  the 
Gentiles  to  the  Jewish  church  were  received 
with  their  households.  And  if  no  counter 
order  had  been  given,  it  would  have  been 
perfectly  natural  for  Paul  and  Silas  to  re- 
ceive the  household  of  Lydia  with  herself. 
All  their  views  of  the  stability  of  the  cove- 
nant made  with  their  fathers  would  have 
led  to  this.  Besides,  if  the  whole  household 
of  Lydia  was  converted  with  herself,  she 
would  have  been  far  more  likely  to  rejoice 
in  the  wonderful  fact,  and  to  speak  of  it, 
than  simply  to  refer  to  her  own.  And  yet 
she  said  to  the  apostles,  "  If  ye  have  judged 
me  to  be  faithful  to  the  Lord,  come  into  my 
house,  and  abide  there,"  —  strongly  imply- 
ing that  she  was  the  only  believer  in  the 
family.     If  all  with  herself  were  believers, 


64  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

the  strongest  inducement  which  the  apostles 
could  have  had  to  comply  with  her  invita- 
tion was  omitted.  And  this  is  the  more 
singular,  as  she  had  to  "constrain"  them 
before  they  consented.  To  the  remark 
sometimes  adduced  as  proof  that  all  her 
household  were  believers  —  "  And  they  [the 
apostles]  went  out  of  the  prison,  and  enter- 
ed into  the  house  of  Lydia;  and  when  they 
had  seen  the  brethren,  and  comforted  them, 
they  departed,"  it  is  sufficient  to  reply. 
No  intimation  is  given  that  they  saw  them 
at  the  house  of  Lydia,  much  less  that  they 
belonged  to  her  family.  The  meaning  is 
simply,  that  they  saw  them  before  they  left 
the  city.  Here,  then,  is  a  household  bap- 
tized by  the  apostles  without  any  evidence 
that  any  but  its  head  was  pious,  and  where 
all  the  evidence  which  the  Holy  Ghost  has 
seen  fit  to  give  us  goes  against  the  idea  that 
any  but  herself  had  received  the  Saviour. 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  65 

In  the  same  city,  Philippi,  the  jailor,  to 
whose  care  Paul  and  Silas  were  committed, 
was  suddenly  converted ;  and  it  is  said  of 
him  that  he  and  all  his  were  baptized 
straightway.  From  its  being  said  that  the 
apostles  preached  "  to  all  that  were  in  his 
house,"  and  that  he  "rejoiced,  believing  in 
God,  with  all  his  house,"  some  maintain 
that  all  his  household  were  believers.  But 
the  language  in  the  original  gives  a  different 
idea.  One  well  qualified  to  judge  says  :  "  If 
there  is  any  ambiguity  in  this  English 
phrase,  there  is  none  in  the  original.  It  is 
certain  from  the  Greek,  as  every  one  ac- 
quainted with  the  language  must  perceive, 
that  the  believing  and  rejoicing  here  spoken 
of,  being  in  the  singular  number,  can  refer 
to  the  jailor  only."  (Pond  on  Baptism,  p. 
96,  Edition  of  1833.)  —  The  commentator 
Scott  says  that  the  word  for  believed  is  sin- 
gular—  thus  implying  that  the  jailor  only 
5 


66  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

believed,  and  that  his  household  were  bap- 
tized on  the  ground  of  his  faith.  Mr.  Scott 
renders  the  passage  thus,  "  He  [the  jailor] 
rejoiced  through  all  his  house,  having  be- 
lieved in  God." 

Here,  then,  is  evidence  which  a  mind 
open  to  conviction  and  inquiring  after  truth 
would  be  slow  to  disregard,  that  two  house- 
holds w^ere  baptized  on  the  faith  of  their 
heads.  The  very  mentioning,  indeed,  of  the 
baptism  of  households,  is  strong  presumptive 
evidence  that  the  apostles  believed  and 
practised  infant  baptism.  The  journals  of 
missionaries  who  reject  this  doctrine  may 
be  searched  in  vain  for  such  records  as  are 
here  made  respecting  the  apostles.  And 
knowing,  as  my  readers  do,  that  evangelical 
Christians  are  divided  on  this  point,  were 
they  to  find,  in  the  journal  of  any  mission- 
ary, of  whose  opinion  in  this  respect  they 
knew  nothing,  such  entries  as  these  :  —  "A 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  67 

certain  woman,  hearing  me  preach,  believ- 
ed, and  I  baptized  her  and  her  family ; "  "  A 
man  embraced  the  Saviour,  and  I  baptized 
him  and  all  his,"  — they  would  not  hesitate 
a  moment  on  which  side  of  the  line  that 
divides  Christians  on  this  subject  to  rank 
that  missionary.  Why  judge  differently  of 
the  apostles  and  of  him?  Were  not  the 
apostles  inspired  men,  whose  example  and 
practice  every  one  wishes  should  correspond 
with  his  own  views,  the  fact  of  their  bap- 
tizing households  would  be  deemed  good 
reason  for  believing  that  they  practised  in- 
fant baptism.  No  one  would  be  likely  to 
call  this  in  question  in  the  case  of  any  other, 
the  record  of  whose  proceedings  correspond- 
ed  with  the  record  of  theirs.  The  account 
given  us  of  the  apostles  is  just  such  as  ive 
should  have  expected  on  the  supposition  that 
they  practised  Infant  Baptism^  and  just  such 
as  we  should  not  have  expected  if  they  did 
not  practise  it. 


68  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

2.  If  children  are  not  to  he  retained  in  cov- 
enant under  the  Christian  dispensation^  we 
should  have  heard  loud  complaints  from  the 
converted  Jews, —  That  the  children  of  God's 
peculiar  people  were  entitled  to  covenant 
blessings  with  their  parents,  was  a  fact 
which  had  run  along  the  whole  history  of 
the  Hebrew  nation,  and  was  strongly  as- 
sociated with  the  religious  principles  and 
feelings  of  every  Jewish  mind.  And  every 
one,  at  all  acquainted  with  the  history  of 
that  people,  knows  that  they  were  peculiar- 
ly tenacious  of  their  rites  and  ceremonies, 
and  strongly  opposed  to  innovation.  Mul- 
titudes of  them  believed,  and  were  brought 
into  the  Christian  church.  But  conversion 
to  Christianity  did  not  free  their  minds  from 
their  national  prejudices.  It  was  extremely 
difficult  for  them  to  indulge  the  opinion  that 
any  change  was  to  take  place  in  the  customs 
in   which   they   had   been   trained.      They 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  69 

were  "  zealous  of  the  law,"  and  disposed  to 
enforce  its  observance  on  the  Gentile  con- 
verts. 

In  the  new  order  of  things  introduced  by 
the  gospel  dispensation,  had  the  children 
been  stricken  out  from  their  covenant  rela- 
tion to  God,  the  change  to  the  Jews  would 
have  been  great.  It  would  have  been  an 
innovation  upon  their  previous  habits  of 
thought  and  feeling  to  which  no  Jewish 
mind  would  have  quietly  submitted.  A 
clamor  would  have  been  raised,  and  discus- 
sion would  have  been  long  and  sharp  ;  and 
much  opposition  would  have  been  manifest- 
ed, before  a  change  could  have  been  effect- 
ed. How  is  it,  then,  that  we  hear  not  a 
w^ord  of  such  discussion?  How  is  it  that  the 
question  is  not  even  raised  ?  When  many 
other  things  are  discussed,  and  deviations 
from  the  ceremonial  law  were  strenuously 
opposed,  by  the  Jewish  converts,  how  is  it 


70  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

that  not  a  word  is  said  about  this  ?  Any 
one  who  can  believe  that  such  a  change 
could  have  been  effected  without  a  syllable 
of  controversy,  must  be  strangely  ignorant 
of  the  strength  of  Jewish  prejudices,  or  must 
strangely  overlook  them.  The  entire  silence 
of  the  New  Testament  on  this  subject  is 
evidence,  which  no  unbiased  mind  will  feel 
at  liberty  to  disregard,  that  no  such  change 
occurred  at  the  commencement  of  the  Chris- 
tian dispensation. 

3.  History  teaches  that  Infant  Baptism  ivas 
universally  practised  in  the  churches  soon 
after  the  apostolic  age.  —  I  shall  trouble 
the  reader  with  only  a  few  quotations. 
Irenseus,  who  wrote  about  sixty-seven  years 
after  the  apostles,  and  who  was  a  disciple 
of  Polycarp,  the  disciple  of  John,  says, 
"  Christ  came  to  save  all  persons  who  by 
him  are  regenerated  unto  God ;  infants  and 
little  ones,  and    children  and  youths,   and 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  71 

older  persons."  (Wall,  Vol.  I.  p.  25.)  The 
fathers  of  that  day  used  the  term  "  regener- 
ate "  for  "  baptize "  —  thus  putting  the 
thing  signified  for  that  which  denoted  it. 
This  was  evidently  the  sense  in  which 
Irenceus  used  the  word  ;  for,  in  relation  to 
Christ's  command  (Matt.  28:  19),  he  says, 
"  When  Christ  gave  his  apostles  the  com- 
mand of  regenerating  unto  God^  he  said, 
Go  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them."  Jus- 
tin Martyr  (a  cotemporary  with  Ireneeus), 
says  of  certain  persons,  "  They  are  regenerat- 
ed in  the  same  way  of  regeneration  in  which 
we  were  regenerated ;  for  they  are  washed 
ivith  ivater  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost."  (Pond,  p.  99.) 
Origen,  whose  father  was  a  Christian 
martyr,  was  a  very  learned  man,  and  flour- 
ished about  one  hundred  and  ten  years  after 
the  apostles.  He  travelled  quite  extensive- 
ly,  and  had  the   best   means  of    knowing 


72  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

the  practice  of  the  churches.  He  says, 
"  According  to  the  usage  of  the  church, 
baptism  is  given  to  infants."  Again  he 
says,  "  Infants  are  baptized  for  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins ; "  and  again,  "  The  church  had 
a  tradition  from-  the  apostles  to  give  baptism 
to  infants."  (Pond,  p.  102.)  In  the  year 
253,  about  153  years  subsequent  to  the 
apostles,  a  council  of  sixty-six  bishops  was 
convened  in  Carthage,  with  the  learned 
Cyprian  at  its  head,  —  a  man,  who,  with 
many  others  of  that  day,  braved  the  fires  of 
persecution,  and  finally  died  a  martyr  to 
the  religion  of  Clirist.  Fidus  addressed  a 
letter  to  that  council,  wishing  to  know 
whether  the  baptism  of  infants  should  be 
delayed  till  the  eighth  day,  according  to  the 
law  of  circumcision,  or  might  be  admin- 
istered at  an  earlier  date.  That  council 
unanimously  decided  that  it  was  not  need- 
ful to  delay  it  to  that  time.     (Milner's  Ch. 


I 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  73 

Hist.,  Vol.  I.  p.  320.)  No  question  was 
raised  whether  infants  should  be  baptized. 
This,  it  seems,  no  one  in  that  venerable 
body  doubted.  The  point  was  only, 
whether  it  was  requisite  to  regard  the  law 
of  circumcision  as  to  the  time  of  admin- 
istering it.  That  council  decided  the  ques- 
tion submitted  to  them  in  the  negative  ;  and 
the  whole  case  shows  the  opinion  of  the 
fathers  respecting  baptism's  taking  the  place 
of  circumcision.  Augustine,  whom  Mil- 
ner  styles  "  the  great  luminary  of  the  cen- 
tury in  which  he  lived,"  flourished  283  years 
after  the  apostles.  (Pond,  p.  106.)  He  says, 
"  The  whole  church  practises  infant  bap- 
tism ;  it  was  not  instituted  by  councils,  but 
was  always  in  use."  He  also  says,  "  That 
he  did  not  remember  ever  to  have  read  of 
any  person,  whether  catholic  or  heretic,  w^ho 
maintained  that  baptism  ought  to  be  denied 
to  infants."     And  further,  "  This  the  church 


74  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

has  always  maintained."  (Dwight's  Theo. 
Vol.  IV.  p.  336.)  Pelagius,  who  was  a  co- 
temporary  with  Augustine,  "  was  born  in 
Britain,  and  had  travelled  through  France, 
Italy,  Africa  Proper,  and  Egypt  to  Jerusa- 
lem." (Dwight.)  He  rejected  the  doctrine 
of  original  sin.  Augustine  urged  against 
him  the  doctrine  of  infant  baptism,  inquir- 
ing why,  if  infants  were  not  sinful,  they 
were  baptized.  Pelagius,  of  course,  had  the 
strongest  temptation  to  deny  the  doctrine 
and  practice  of  infant  baptism,  if  he  could. 
But  instead  of  this,  he  says,  "  Baptism  ought 
to  be  administered  to  infants  with  the 
same  sacramental  words  which  are  used  in 
the  case  of  adult  persons."  "  Men  slander 
me,  as  if  I  denied  the  sacrament  of  bap- 
tism to  infants."  "  I  never  heard  of  any 
one,  not  even  the  most  impious  heretic, 
who  denied  baptism  to  infants."  (Pond, 
p.  108.) 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  75 

The  apostles  were  under  the  special  guid- 
ance of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  they  practised 
infant  baptism,  or  they  did  not.  There 
must  have  been  uniformity  among  them : 
and  they  introduced  the  practice  in  the 
churches  they  instituted ;  or  they  did  not. 
Irenaeus,  the  pupil  of  Polycarp,  who  had 
been  the  disciple  of  John,  must  have  known 
what  the  instructions  and  practice  of  the 
apostles  had  been ;  and  yet  he  testifies  for 
infant  baptism.  So  did  Origen,  Augustine, 
Pelagius,  the  council  of  Carthage,  and 
others  whose  testimony  might  be  introduc- 
ed. These  witnesses  show  conclusively 
that  infant  baptism  was  universal  in  the 
church  soon  after  the  apostolic  age.  If. 
then,  the  apostles  did  not  practise  it,  a  uni- 
versal change  must  have  taken  place  soon 
after  their  time.  This  could  not  have  been 
effected  without  much  discussion.  Multi- 
tudes must  have  seen  the  innovation ;  and 


76  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

many  would  have  lifted  their  voices  against 
it.  Human  nature  must  have  been  far 
more  pliant  then  than  now,  if  much  warm 
and  angry  disputing  had  not  occurred.  How 
is  it,  then,  that  not  a  syllable  of  this  reaches 
us  on  the  page  of  history  ?  How  is  it,  that, 
when  other  schisms  and  disputes  existed, 
and  the  record  of  them  is  preserved,  not  a 
word  is  said  about  this  ?  How  is  it,  that  in 
a  council  of  sixty-six  learned  and  pious  bish- 
ops, only  a  century  and  a  half  after  the 
apostles,  no  one  lifted  his  voice  against  a 
practice  which  must  have  been  known  to  be 
against  apostolic  instructions  and  usage,  if 
the  apostles  did  not  believe  and  practise  in- 
fant baptism  ?  And  how  is  it  that  such 
men  as  Origen  and  Pelagius  never  heard, 
not  simply  of  any  church,  but  of  any 
individual^  who  denied  the  propriety  of 
infant  baptism  ?  If  these  are  reliable  testi- 
monies (and  we  are   not   aware  that   any 


I 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  77 

attempt  has  ever  been  made  to  disprove 
them),  the  inference  is  unavoidable,  that  the 
apostles  taught  and  practised  infant  bap- 
tism.* 

I  close  this  point  of  the  argument  by  a 
qjciotation  from  the  late  learned  Dr.  Dwight. 
"  A  person  who  employed  himself  extensive- 
ly in  examining  this  subject,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing result  of  all  his  inquiries.  First. 
During  the  first  400  years  from  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Christian  church,  Tertullian  only 
urged  the  delay  of  baptism  to  infants,  and 
that  only  in  some  cases ;  and  Gregory  only 

*  Infant  baptism  has  been  denied  to  exist  in  the 
early  ages  of  the  church,  and  arguments  have  been 
employed  to  sustain  the  denial.  The  testimony  of 
these  fathers  has  been  ignored ;  but  I  am  not  aware  of 
any  attempt  to  disprove  it.  It  stands  on  the  page  of 
history ;  and  there  it  will  stand,  an  unanswerable  proof 
of  the  usage  of  the  churches  which  the  apostles  and 
their  successors  planted. 


78  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

delayed  it,  perhaps,  to  his  own  children. 
But  neither  any  society  of  men,  nor  any  in- 
dividual, denied  the  lawfulness  of  baptizing 
infants.  —  Secondly.  In  the  next  700  years, 
there  was  not  a  society  nor  an  individual 
who  even  pleaded  for  this  delay ;  much  less 
any  who  denied  the  right  or  the  duty  of  in- 
fant baptism.  —  Thirdly.  In  the  year  1120, 
one  sect  of  the  Waldenses  declared  against 
the  baptism  of  infants,  because  they  suppos- 
ed them  incapable  of  salvation.  But  the 
main  body  of  that  people  rejected  the  opin- 
ion as  heretical;  and  the  sect  which  held  it 
soon  came  to  nothing.  —  Fourthly.  The  next 
appearance  of  this  opinion  was  in  the  year 
1522."  He  adds:  "Had  the  baptism  of 
infants  ever  been  discontinued  by  the 
church,  or  had  it  been  introduced  in  any  age 
subsequent  to  that  of  the  apostles,  these 
things  could  not  have  been,  nor  could  the 
history  of  them  been  found."  (Vol.  IV.  p. 
337.) 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  79 

Let  US  now  glance  at  the  points  which 
have  been  proved,  —  and  proved,  we  think, 
beyond  the  power  of  successful  refutation : 
—  The  Christian  church  is  a  continuation 
of  the  Jewish  church ;  —  The  charter  of  the 
church's  privileges  was  not  annulled  or  alter- 
ed at  the  commencement  of  the  Christian 
dispensation,  —  it  embraced  children  before, 
and  it  embraces  them  still ;  —  At  the  change 
of  dispensations,  baptism,  as  the  seal  of  the 
covenant,  succeeded  to  circumcision  ;  —  We 
hence  need  no  special  command  to  baptize 
infants  —  the  command,  "  Go  teach  all  na- 
tions, baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,"  since 
no  qualification  or  restriction  was  intro- 
duced, involves  the  duty.  We  have  seen 
that  Christ  and  his  apostles  acted  just  as  we 
should  have  expected  them  to  act  if  they  be- 
lieved that  children  were  still  to  be  regarded 
as  embraced  in  the   covenant   made  with 


80  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

their  parents,  and  were  to  receive  the  seal 
of  that  covenant ;  —  That  the  rejection  of 
children  would  have  produced  loud  com- 
plaints from  the  converted  Jews,  whereas 
not  a  whisper  of  such  complaint  appears  ; — 
and,  That  history  shows  the  universal  prac- 
tice of  infant  baptism  in  the  churches  soon 
after  the  apostolic  age. 

What  more  proof  do  we  want  that  Infant 
Baptism  is  an  ordinance  of  the  gospel  ? 
"What  more  can  any  reasonable  person  ask  ? 
We  hope,  then,  to  be  excused  from  the 
charge  of  bigotry  or  undue  positiveness 
while  we  express  the  feeling  that  the  doctrine 
rests  on  the  sure  foundation  of  the  word  of 
God,  and  will  there  remain,  unmoved  by  all 
the  power  which  may  be  arrayed  against  it. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

RELATION  OF  BAPTIZED  CHILDREN  TO  THE 
CHURCH.  —  UTILITY  OF  INFANT  BAPTISM  ;  —  IT 
TENDS     TO     INCREASE     THE     FAITHFULNESS     OF 

PARENTS    TO      SECURE      TO      CHILDREN      THE 

PRAYERS     AND     COUNSELS     OF     THE     CHURCH  

AND    TO     SOOTHE     THE     GRIEF     OCCASIONED     BY 
THEIR   DEATH. 

Havixg,  as  we  think,  fairly  and  conclu- 
sively established  the  doctrine  of  Infant 
Baptism,  the  question  naturally  arises, 
"  What  is  the  relation  of  baptized  children 
to  the  church  ? "  Are  they  strictly  and 
properly  members,  entitled  to  its  peculiar 
ordinances  and  privileges  ?  Since,  in  estab- 
lishing this  doctrine,  we  reason  from  the 
former  dispensation,  it  may  be  thought 
6 


82  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

that,  without  any  other  qualification,  they 
should  come  to  the  Lord's  table.  To  this 
I  reply,  that  analogy,  which,  at  first  sight, 
may  be  thought  to  lead  to  this  conclusion, 
sustains  the  opposite.  It  has  been  already 
shown  that  the  Jewish  church  was  not  strict- 
ly national,  and  that  only  at  a  few  points  in 
its  history  did  it  embrace  the  entire  nation. 
Something  more  than  circumcision  was  re- 
quisite to  constitute  a  member  of  that  church. 
A  person  must  be  —  and,  by  his  own  act, 
he  must  profess  to  be  —  a  worshipper  of 
Jehovah.  All  Jewish  males  were  required 
to  attend  the  three  great  national  feasts,  and 
there  present  offerings  to  God,  and  worship. 
(See  Deut.  16:  16.  26:  10.)  Obedience 
to  this  requirement  was  a  practical  personal 
profession  that  one  was  a  worshipper  and 
servant  of  Jehovah.  If  he  refused  thus  to 
do,  he  virtually  separated  himself  from  the 
company  of   God's   worshippers,  or  rather, 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  83 

did  not  join  himself  to  it  —  was  not  in  form 
or  in  fact,  truly  and  strictly  a  member  of 
that  church.  The  passover,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, was  one  of  those  feasts,  and  was 
forbidden  to  be  eaten  at  any  place  except  at 
the  tabernacle  or  temple.  The  injunction 
was,  "  Thou  mayest  not  sacrifice  the  pass- 
over  within  any  of  thy  gates  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  giveth  thee  ;  but  at  the  place  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  shall  choose  to  place  his 
name  in,  there  thou  shalt  sacrifice  the  pass- 
over."  (Deut.  16 :  5,  6.)  Those  who  did 
not  go  up  to  the  feasts,  and  profess  them- 
selves the  worshippers  of  Jehovah,  were 
thus  forbidden  to  eat  it.  The  practical  pro- 
fession of  being  his  worshippers  must  be 
made  by  going  up  to  the  feast,  before  the 
privilege  could  be  enjoyed.  —  St.  Luke  says 
that  Christ  went  up  to  the  passover  at 
Jerusalem,  with  his  parents,  when  he  was 
twelve  years  old,  "  after  the  custom  of  the 


84  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

feast."  (Luke  2  :  41,  42.)  And  the  state- 
ment of  commentators,  such  as  Calvin,  Bp. 
Patrick,  Poole,  RosenmuUer,  and  others,  is, 
that  children  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  were 
brought  by  their  parents  to  the  temple ;  and 
from  that  time,  they  began  to  eat  the  pass- 
over  and  other  sacrifices.  Bloomfield  says : 
"  The  custom  was,  not  to  take  them  to  the 
passover,  until  they  should  have  attained 
the  age  of  puberty,  a  period  which  the  Rab- 
bins tell  us  was  fixed  at  the  twelfth  year, 
when  they  were  held  amenable  to  the  law, 
and  were  called  sons  of  precept.  They 
were  then  also  introduced  into  the  church, 
initiated  into  its  doctrines  and  ceremonies, 
and  consequently  were  taken,  with  their 
relatives,  to  Jerusalem  at  the  festivals."  Dr. 
Gill,  a  learned  Baptist  commentator,  says 
(on  Luke  2 :  42) :  "  According  to  the  maxims 
of  the  Jews,  persons  were  not  obliged  to  the 
duties  of  the  law,  or  subject  to  the  penalties 


INFANT   BAPTISar.  85 

of  it  in  case  of  non-performance,  until  they 
were,  a  female,  at  the  age  of  twelve  years 
and  one  day,  and  a  male,  at  the  age  of  thir- 
teen years  and  one  day."  He  adds,  as  his 
own  comment  on  the  passage :  "  They  were 
not  properly  nnder  the  law  until  they  arriv- 
ed at  that  age ;  nor  were  they  reckoned 
adult  church-members  till  then,  nor  then 
neither,  unless  worthy  persons :  for  so  it  is 
said,  '  he  that  is  worthy,  at  thirteen  years  of 
age,  is  called  a  son  of  the  congregations,' 
that  is,  a  member  of  the  church." 

We  see,  then,  to  what  conclusion  the 
argument  from  analogy  conducts  us.  There 
is  no  rule  which  entitles  baptized  children 
to  the  peculiar  privileges  and  ordinances  of 
the  church,  till  they  publicly  profess  faith  in 
Christ.  They  are  brought  only  within  the 
outer  enclosure  of  the  church,  and,  through 
the  covenanted  mercies  of  God,  are  peculiar- 
ly its  hope. 


86  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

We  now  proceed  to  another  topic,  —  The 
utility  of  Infant  Baptism.  Every  divinely 
instituted  ordinance  is  founded  upon  prin- 
ciples of  our  nature  which  created  a  ne- 
cessity for  its  existence,  and  render  it,  when 
rightly  understood  and  practised,  highly 
beneficial.  This,  we  think,  is  eminently 
true  of  the  ordinance  we  are  now  consider- 
ing. 

It  is  scarcely  needful  to  premise,  that  an 
important  part  of  the  Divine  plan  is  to  per- 
petuate and  promote  religion  in  the  world 
by  means  of  parental  instruction  and  in- 
fluence. Every  reader  of  the  Bible  must  be 
aware  of  this.  Numerous  injunctions,  both 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  teach  the 
important  truth.  The  fact,  too,  is  written 
upon  the  very  constitution  of  our  natures. 
In  our  younger  years,  we  instinctively  cher- 
ish feelings  of  respect  toward  those  who  sur- 
round us  with  the  arms  of  parental  affection 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  87 

and  kindness.  We  look  to  them  for  instruc- 
tion and  guidance ;  and  our  plastic  natures 
are  moulded  materially  by  their  agency 
upon  us.  Tlie  principles  which  they  instil 
sink  deep  in  our  memories,  and  outlive 
many  subsequent  impressions.  The  effects 
of  our  early  training  remain  with  us,  and 
generally  do  more  than  any  other  cause,  and, 
probably,  more  than  all  other  causes,  to 
frame  our  characters,  and  point  out,  like  the 
finger  of  an  index,  our  future  and  final  des- 
tinies. 

The  parental  relation  was  instituted,  and 
the  affections  it  involves  bestowed,  —  not 
that  the  body  simply,  nor  yet  the  mind  in 
its  temporal  relations,  should  be  the  chief 
object  of  solicitude  and  care,  —  but  that  so- 
licitude for  the  welfare  of  the  undying  spirit 
should  be  cherished,  and  that  the  instruction 
should  be  given,  and  the  influence  exerted, 
which,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  will  cause 


88  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

the  principles  of  holiness  to  spring  up  with- 
in, and  advance  in  strength  to  the  govern- 
ment and  sanctification  of  the  soul,  and  to 
its  ultimate  perfection  and  felicity  in  heaven. 
And  here,  as  in  every  other  undertaking, 
success  will,  in  general,  be  proportioned  to 
the  diligence  and  faithfulness  with  which 
the  means  are  employed.  The  parent  who 
feels  his  responsibility,  and  labors  and  prays 
to  be  qualified  to  meet  it,  and  carefully  and 
diligently  imparts  instruction  to  his  tender 
charge,  and  fervently  seeks  the  Divine  bless- 
ing upon  them,  and  accompanies  his  efforts 
with  a  godly  example  in  other  respects,  will 
be  instrumental  of  their  salvation.  He  is 
sowing  seed  in  a  susceptible  soil ;  and,  as 
surely  as  the  husbandman  reaps  a  harvest 
as  the  result  of  his  toil,  will  a  rich  harvest 
unto  eternal  life  be  realized  from  the  germs 
of  truth  and  hohness  which  he  deposits. 
He  shall  ultimately  appear  before  the  throne 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  89 

of  God,  with  unspeakable  joy,  surrounded 
by  those  for  whom  he  has  toiled  and  wept. 
On  the  contrary,  if  he  is  negligent,  his  off- 
spring may  rise  into  life  without  those  im- 
pressions of  truth  which  their  state  and  ne- 
cessities require,  may  pass  through  the  years 
allotted  them  on  earth  without  religion,  and 
may  be  found  on  the  left  hand  at  the  day 
of  final  account.  This  is  as  certain  as  that 
the  neglect  of  means  in  any  other  depart- 
ment of  the  divine  government  will  result  in 
the  failure  of  the  ends  which  means  are  in- 
tended to  secure.  Means  and  ends,  in  the 
government  of  God,  have  a  sure  connection. 
And  they  are  no  more  surely  connected  in 
any  other  department  than  in  the  moral  and 
spiritual.  Here  it  is  more  certain  than  in 
any  other,  that  "  whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 
that  shall  he  also  reap." 

It  follows,  that  whatever  tends  to  promote 
faithfulness  in   the   religious   education  of 


90  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

children,  tends  to  their  salvation  and  to  the 
promotion  of  piety  in  the  world.  Here, 
then,  is  my  first  argmiient  for  the  utility  of 
the  doctrine  and  practice  of  Infant  Bap- 
tism :  — 

It  tends  to  increase  parental  faithfulness  in 
the  religious  instruction  and  training  of  chil- 
dren. 

No  man  is  so  ignorant  of  the  principles  of 
our  nature  as  entirely  to  discard  the  use  of 
forms.  In  pecuniary  affairs,  why  is  a 
promise  or  a  note  better  than  a  simple 
purpose  of  the  mind  ?  and  why  is  a  written 
agreement  better  than  a  mere  understand- 
ing ?  An  important  part  of  the  benefit  is, 
that  the  act  of  thus  formally  binding  in- 
creases a  sense  of  obligation. 

On  this  principle  —  the  usefulness  of 
forms —  God  has  dealt  largely  with  our 
race  from  the  beginning.  The  patriarchs 
and  the  Israelites  were  more  likely  to  feel 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  91 

their  guilt  and  their  desert  at  the  divine 
hand  when  they  saw  the  sacrifice  offered  to 
expiate  their  guilt,  first  bleeding  and  then 
smoking  upon  the  altar,  than  if  no  such  rite 
had  been  instituted.  The  Jewish  parent,  as 
he  saw  the  painful  ceremony  which  the  law 
required,  administered  to  his  child,  would 
be  more  likely  to  feel,  than  he  otherwise 
would  have  been,  that  that  child  possessed 
a  corrupt  nature,  which  needed  to  be  taken 
away,  and  corrupt  passions  and  affections 
which  it  might  cost  painful  effort  to  mortify 
and  exterminate.  So,  under  the  Christian 
dispensation,  the  ordinance  of  the  Supper 
was  instituted,  and  attendance  on  it  requir- 
ed, because  the  solemnity  of  the  service 
tends  to  bring  near  to  the  mind,  and  impress 
on  the  heart,  the  important  truths  which 
cluster  round  the  cross  of  the  expiring  Sav- 
iour. One  reason,  why  the  act  of  outward- 
ly and  solemnly  covenanting  with  God  in  a 


92  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

public  profession  of  religion  is  a  duty,  is, 
that  it  tends  to  impress  on  the  mind  one's 
obligations  to  be  God's,  and  to  live  for  him 
in  the  world.  The  outward  offering  of 
prayer  is  better  than  the  mere  desires  of  the 
heart,  because  it  tends  to  fix  the  thoughts 
and  add  intensity  to  the  desires.  Public 
worship  is  a  duty,  because  its  several  forms 
tend  to  beget  and  foster  in  the  soul  the  feel- 
ings of  devotion.  And  he  who  fancies  that 
one  may  be  just  as  good  a  Christian  without 
outward  forms  —  without  prayer,  without 
public  worship,  without  open  profession  and 
attendance  on  special  ordinances  —  as  with 
them,  is  astonishingly  ignorant  or  careless 
or  perverse.  He  applies  a  principle  in  the 
high  concerns  of  religion  which  he  knows  to 
be  unsound,  and  which  he  would  not  trust 
in  any  other  department. 

On   the   same   ground   of  utility,  which 
underlies  other  religious  ordinances,  do  we 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  93 

maintain  that  Infant  Baptism  is  impressive- 
ly significant  and  highly  salutary.  In  this 
rite,  the  parent  is  solemnly  reminded  that  in 
his  child  (so  young,  perhaps,  as  to  be  almost 
unconscious  of  its  own  existence),  are  wrap- 
ped the  germs  of  immortality,  that  these  will 
be  developed  and  matured,  and  that  heaven 
or  hell  will  be  the  certain  and  amazing  issue 
of  its  individual  being.  He  is  reminded  of 
the  pollution  of  its  nature,  —  that  from  its 
earliest  infancy  it  needs  cleansing,  and 
must  have  it,  or  never  be  admitted  to 
heaven.  He  is  reminded  that  the  little  crea- 
ture whose  very  being  twines  so  strongly 
around  his  heart  is  not  his,  but  God's,  — 
that  his  Creator  claims  it  as  his  own  peculiar 
property,  and  commits  it  to  him  to  be  cared 
for  and  trained  witli  special  reference  to  his 
service  and  kingdom  both  here  and  here- 
after. He  is  thus  reminded  of  his  solemn 
responsibility  —  that   if  he   is   faithful   in 


94  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

prayer  and  effort  —  if  he  guides  and  guards 
and  instructs,  and  pleads  for,  his  now  help- 
less offspring  as  he  should,  its  usefulness 
and  blessedness  will  be  the  happy  result; 
and  if  he  is  negligent,  disaster  and  ruin,  here 
and  hereafter,  may  be  the  consequence.  He 
is  also  reminded  of  God's  promised  aid  to 
his  endeavors,  and  the  certainty  of  success, 
if  his  efforts  are  made  in  humble  and  perse- 
vering faith. 

Fix  your  eye,  then,  upon  a  parent  who 
has  recently  received  the  precious  gift  of  a 
"  second  self."  See  him  bringing  this  ob- 
ject of  his  tenderest  affection  into  the  house 
of  God,  before  a  solemn  assembly  of  wor- 
shippers, that  he  may  consecrate  it  to  the 
Lord  and  Saviour  to  whom  he  has  given 
himself.  The  solemnity  of  the  duty  presup- 
poses the  existence  of  thought  and  prayer 
respecting  his  obligations,  and  the  necessi- 
ties and  destiny  of  his  child.     He  brings  it 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  95 

and  devotes  it  to  God,  and  prays  for  its  ac- 
ceptance, and  for  the  bestowment  upon  it  of 
the  purifying  influences  of  the  Spirit  so  im- 
pressively signified  by  the  ordinance  admin- 
istered. He  enters  into  solemn  covenant 
with  God  respecting  that  child.  He  pledges 
himself,  there,  in  the  presence  of  God  and 
his  people,  to  train  and  educate  that  child 
for  Christ,  —  that  the  instructions  he  gives 
in  any  thing  useful,  and  the  privileges  and 
advantages  he  procures  for  it,  shall  be  with 
the  express  design  of  fitting  it  to  be  a  good 
and  useful  subject  of  His  kingdom.  He 
pledges  his  own  daily,  humble,  earnest,  per- 
severing prayers  to  God  in  its  behalf,  and 
that  he  will  store  its  opening  mind  with 
divine  truth,  and  surround  it  with  motives 
to  godliness.  And  he  takes  hold  of  God's 
covenant  engagements  to  bless  his  efforts 
and  save  his  child. 

Now  we  ask,  will  all  this  have  no  good 


96  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

effect  upon  a  Christian  parent's  heart  ?  Can 
he  have  distinctly  placed  before  his  mind, 
and  pressed  upon  his  heart,  all  the  solemn 
truths  and  facts  involved  in  this  ordinance, 
and  pass  from  such  a  scene  with  no  increas- 
ed impression  of  the  state  and  necessities 
of  his  child,  and  his  own  responsibilities  and 
duties  ?  Will  he  be  moved  to  no  more  ear- 
nestness of  prayer  by  having  an  ordinance 
indicative  of  its  true  relation  to  the  govern- 
ment of  God,  placed,  as  it  were,  at  the  very 
threshold  of  its  being  ?  Will  he  be  stimulat- 
ed to  no  more  diUgence  of  effort  by  thus 
seeing  how  much  depends  on  him,  and  what 
he  has  solemnly  engaged  to  do?  And  will 
his  faith  derive  no  encouragement  and 
strength  from  God's  promised  assistance, 
assured  to  him  in  the  covenant  of  which  he 
has  taken  hold  ?  To  say  that  all  this  is  use- 
less, is  to  contradict  some  of  the  plainest 
principles  of  our  nature.     It  is  not  useless. 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  97 

When  properly  understood  and  performed, 
it  cannot  be.  The  parent,  who,  with  a  right 
apprehension  of  the  nature  of  the  transac- 
tion, and  with  true  piety  of  feeling  and  pur- 
pose, thus  consecrates  his  child,  is  benefited 
himself  by  being  brought  into  a  closer  cov- 
enant relation  to  God,  and  by  being  render- 
ed more  faithful  in  duty ;  and  the  richest 
blessings  will  result  to  the  precious  object 
of  his  affection  and  solicitude.  And  to  ob- 
ject to  the  utility  of  this  ordinance  by  say- 
ing that  the  happy  results,  as  here  indicated, 
are  seldom,  if  ever,  fully  seen,  would  be  just 
as  valid  as  to  object  against  the  Lord's  sup- 
per by  saying  that  it  exerts  not  all  the  in- 
fluence on  Christian  hearts  and  lives  which 
it  should.  The  very  fact  that  there  is  ground 
for  such  an  objection  against  Infant  Bap- 
tism, shows  the  necessity  of  such  an  insti- 
tution. It  shows  that  parents  need  all  the 
helps  to  faith  and  duty  which  the  ordinance 
7. 


98  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

involves.  At  best,  they  are  apt  to  be  forget- 
ful and  negligent.  At  best,  too  many  of 
their  children  perish  through  their  neglect. 
God  foresaw  the  necessities  of  the  case,  and, 
in  mercy  to  them  and  their  offspring,  institu- 
ted an  ordinance  most  happily  calculated 
to  help  their  infirmities,  and  lead  to  blessed 
results. 

2.  Infant  Baptism  tends  to  procure  for 
children  the  prayers  and  pious  co-operation 
of  the  church.  Few  things  are  more  solemn 
and  impressive  than  to  see  a  little  infant, 
scarcely  conscious  of  its  own  existence,  pub- 
licly presented  to  God  in  this  ordinance, 
and  then  to  have  the  prayers  of  the  whole 
congregation  centred  on  the  spiritual  and 
immortal  welfare  of  that  tender  and  beauti- 
ful object.  Who  that  has  any  sense  of  the 
worth  and  importance  of  religion,  or  any 
belief  in  God  as  a  hearer  of  prayer,  would 
not  value  an  interest  in  such  supplications 


INFANT   BAPTISM.  99 

ill  behalf  of  his  own  children  ?  Any  Chris- 
tian, surely,  has  few  parental  sympathies 
whose  heart  is  not  warm,  and  his  supplica- 
tions fervent,  on  such  an  occasion.  And 
the  ear  of  Him  who  said,  "  Suffer  the  little 
children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them 
not,"  must  be  open  to  such  requests.  Few 
petitions  accord  better  with  the  tenderness 
of  his  nature  as  thus  expressed,  or  are  more 
sure  to  receive  answers  of  peace. 

But  the  influence  of  infant  dedication 
ends  not  with  the  act  or  the  hour  of  its  per- 
formance. That  which  tends  to  strengthen 
the  faith,  and  encourage  the  hope,  and 
stimulate  the  effort,  of  individual  parents,  is 
a  blessing  to  the  church  as  a  whole.  And 
we  hazard  nothing  in  saying  that  those 
churches  which  place  the  highest  and  most 
enlightened  estimate  on  Infant  Baptism, 
pray  most,  and  most  fervently,  for  the  chil- 
dren of  the  church.    They  view  the  offspring 


100  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

of  the  household  of  faith  as  standing  in  a 
covenant  relation  to  God  and  the  church, 
and  the  body  as  being  the  depositary  of 
promises  and  blessings  in  their  behalf,  and 
as  sustaining  an  important  responsibility 
respecting  their  character  and  destiny.  If 
they  see  such  children  entering  the  paths  of 
vice  or  error,  they  feel  an  additional  induce- 
ment, and  a  stronger  obligation,  to  admon- 
ish and  save  them  from  ruin.  The  con- 
sciences of  children,  too,  by  proper  instruc- 
tion may  be  made  to  feel  that  the  fact  of 
having  been  consecrated  to  God  is  incon- 
sistent with  indulgence  in  carelessness,  folly, 
and  sin  ;  and  imposes  upon  them  increased 
obligation  to  second  the  wishes  of  their 
pious  and  anxious  parents  by  consecrating 
themselves  to  Christ.  And  we  believe  that 
the  lime  is  coming  when  Christians  will 
better  understand,  and  more  deeply  feel,  the 
duties    and    obligations  involved  in   infant 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  101 

dedication,  and  will  be  more  faithful  to 
Christ  and  his  cause  in  this  respect;  and 
that,  as  a  consequence,  children  will  be  con- 
verted while  young;  and  that  thus  the  glo- 
rious period  w^ill  be  introduced  when  "all 
shall  know  the  Lord  from  the  least  to  the 
greatest." 

3.  The  act  of  giving  children  to  God  in 
baptism  tends  to  soothe  a  parent's  heart,  if 
called  to  lay  them  in  an  early  grave.  Many 
a  father  and  mother,  as  they  have  stood  by 
the  bedside  of  a  dying  child,  have  been 
quieted  into  sweet  submission  to  the  divine 
will,  by  remembering  the  consecration  of  it 
to  God  which  they  made  in  baptism.  They 
then  surrendered  it  to  him,  as  its  Creator 
and  Sovereign ;  and  it  is  his.  Strong  as 
may  have  been  their  desires  for  its  recovery, 
they  have  felt  that  it  belonged  not  to  them 
to  dictate  whether  he  should  restore  or  re- 
move it.     They  have  keenly  felt  the  rod, 


102  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

but  have  kissed  it,  and  bowed,  and  from  the 
heart  have  said,  "  Thy  will  be  done." 

The  writer  here  speaks  from  experience. 
In  troubles  of  this  kind  (and  often  has  the 
bitter  cup  been  put  into  his  hand  —  and  he 
cannot  pen  this  remark  without  pausing  for 
a  tear  over  recollections  of  the  past),  he  has 
experienced  consolation  from  the  fact  of 
having  given  his  children  to  God  in  bap- 
tism. At  such  times  he  has  felt  that  the 
ordinance  is  a  blessed  privilege.  When  he 
has  looked  on  a  dying  child,  it  has  calmed 
an  almost  bursting  heart  to  remember  that 
the  child  ivas  not  his  —  that  he  did  surrender 
it  to  God  in  that  specific  and  sole^nn  act. 
Thousands  of  parents  have  felt  the  same. 
Rightly  understood  and  practised,  the  act  of 
dedicating  children  to  God  is  full  of  heaven- 
ly consolation.  It  is  fraught  with  many 
advantages  while  children  live ;  it  yields 
sweet  peace  and  comfort  if  they  die.     Eter- 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  103 

nity  alone  can  unfold  what  benefits  it  has 
conferred  on  parents ;  and  how  many  chil- 
dren, by  the  influences  it  involves,  have  been 
rescued  from  sin,  and  raised  to  the  felicities 
and  honors  of  heaven. 

Such  are  some  of  the  benefits  of  Infant 
Baptism.  It  is  infinitely  too  sacred  and  im- 
portant ever  to  be  treated  with  lightness. 
Every  Christian  parent  should  cleave  to  it,  as 
of  inestimable  value ;  and  he  should  pray 
for  grace  to  realize  upon  himself  and  his  off- 
spring the  fulness  of  its  blessings. 

The  eyes  of  some,  who  have  thus  conse- 
crated their  children  to  God,  will  fall  on 
these  pages.  That  act,  my  friends,  was  only 
the  commencement  of  your  duty.  In  a 
solemn  covenant  transaction,  you  gave  them 
to  God,  and  solemnly  pledged  yourselves  to 
a  faithful  endeavor  to  train  them  for  Him. 
Think  often  of  the  engagement  which  you 
bound  upon  your  souls,  and  how  much  it 


104  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

constantly  requires  of  you.  Think  much  of 
the  consequences  connected  with  fidelity  or 
neglect.  God  is  faithful  to  his  promises ; 
and  you  may  expect  success,  if  you  address 
yourselves,  humbly  and  earnestly,  to  your 
work.  The  prospect  of  success  should  fire 
your  hearts  and  inspire  your  endeavors ;  for, 
what  greater  blessedness  can  you  have  than 
to  appear  before  the  throne  at  length,  sur- 
rounded by  the  objects  of  your  tenderest  af- 
fection. Thousands  of  children  will  bless 
God  forever  for  the  prayers  and  faithfulness 
of  their  parents.  How  delightfnl  the  thought 
that  yours  —  all  of  them  —  may  be  of  this 
happy  number.  Labor  and  pray,  with 
constant  and  tearful  assiduity,  that  so  it 
may  be.  The  blessedness  of  the  result  will 
more  than  repay  all  your  anxiety  and  toil. 

Multitudes  of  children  will  find  their  por- 
tion with  "  hypocrites  and  unbelievers,"  be- 
cause  the  unfaithfulness   of  their   parents 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  105 

suffers  them  to  perish  in  their  sins.  The 
hallowed  paternal  influences,  which  would 
reclaim  and  save  them,  are  wanting  ;  and 
they  go  down  to  the  abodes  of  darkness  as 
the  natural  result  of  their  own  transgres- 
sions. Many  of  these,  it  is  feared,  will  go 
from  the  families  of  professedly  pious 
parents.  Many  more  will  go  from  families 
whose  heads  are  not  pious.  Do  I  address 
any  parents  of  the  latter  class  ?  I  pray  you, 
respected  friends,  to  remember  that  the  same 
great  duties  grow  out  of  the  relations  sub- 
sisting between  you  and  your  children,  as 
result  from  those  existing  between  the  relig- 
ious and  their  offspring.  The  same  conse- 
quences, also,  are  connected  with  fidelity  or 
neglect.  Slumber  not  over  the  pressing  ne- 
cessities of  your  offspring.  Their  souls  are 
infinitely  precious ;  and  the  same  agencies 
and  influences  are  requisite  for  their  salva- 
tion as  are  needful  for  that  of  others.     If 


106  INFANT  BAPTISM. 

you  have  any  care  for  their  immortal  wel- 
fare, give  yourselves  to  Christ,  and  com- 
mence the  labor  you  have  too  long  neglect- 
ed. The  connection  between  you  and  your 
children  will  be  endless  in  its  consequences. 
Oh,  think  of  this.  Ponder  it  well.  There 
is  no  escaping  from  the  solemn  fact.  Awake, 
then,  to  your  own  necessities  and  theirs. 
Pray  for  them.  Pray  with  them.  Instruct 
and  exhort  them,  and  do  what  you  can  to 
bring  them  to  Christ.  God  may  bless  the 
effort,   and   give   you  cause    of  everlasting 

Many  of  the  dear  children  who  constitute 
our  Sabbath  Schools  are  the  subjects  of 
pious  parental  solicitude  and  care.  Not  a 
few  of  you,  young  friends,  have  been  devot- 
ed to  God  in  that  solemn  rite  which  we 
have  now  considered.  Have  you  devoted 
yourselves  ?  Should  you  not  ?  What  more 
reasonable  than  that  those  who  have  receiv- 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  107 

ed  so  many  instructions,  and  for  whom  so 
many  prayers  have  been  offered,  should  give 
the  morning  of  their  days  to  Christ  ?  God 
has  brought  you  into  a  peculiar  relation  to 
himself  and  his  church,  and  surrounded  you 
with  many  influences  to  draw  you  toward 
himself  and  heaven.  Yield  to  their  sweetly 
constraining  power,  and  give  your  hearts  to 
Him  who  died  to  cleanse  them  with  his 
blood. 

There  is  no  more  beautiful  sight  on  earth 
than  to  see  the  young  turning  to  the  Lord. 
And  if  any  of  you  have  not  pious  parents 
to  feel  and  labor  for  your  good,  the  Saviour's 
arms  are,  notwithstanding,  open  to  receive 
you.  To  you,  his  invitation  is,  "  come  unto 
me,  and  I  will  cleanse  and  guide  and  save 
you."  There  is  room  enough  in  heaven  for 
you.  There  angels  wait  to  rejoice  over  your 
repentance,  and  to  welcome  you  among  the 
followers   of  the  Lamb.     If  your   parents 


108  INFANT   BAPTISM. 

pray  not  for  you,  pray  the  more  earnestly 
for  yourselves.  If  they  care  not  for  your 
souls,  you  should  feel  the  deeper  solicitude, 
and  exercise  the  greater  care  yourselves. 
We  know  not  how  many  may  have  felt 
their  way  alone  to  heaven.  May  the  Lord 
enable  you  to  reach  that  happy  place  I 

E  N  p. 


